ABSTRACT
Strategic defenses have been discussed and investigated intensively in the United States since 1983. But exactly what the Strategic Defense Initiative means, or aims at, in terms of United States (US) defense strategy remains a matter of considerable uncertainty and controversy. The greatest concern with a gradual adoption of strategic defenses is the belief that any move in that direction would undermine the stability people has known in the nuclear age, and institute a dangerous and perhaps indefinite period of stratetgic instability. In addition to this ultimate threat, the United States must be able to pose limited responses to limited attacks on itself and its allies. More effective and ambitious strategic defenses, which might be achieved by adding more interceptors to first-generation defenses and by deploying subsequent generations of defenses, could underwrite a new, different US strategic policy. The US is facing serious problems in maintaining the adequacy of its nuclear policy on the basis of offensive nuclear forces alone.
