ABSTRACT
Since the late 1950s, the ultimate guarantee that the superpower competition will not escalate into military conflict has been the threat of mutual nuclear annihilation. Mutual vulnerability and insecurity have become the basis of superpower security. Assessing the long-term implications for superpower relations of the possible development and deployment of a new type of strategic defense is necessarily a highly speculative exercise. The Soviet Union reacted to President Reagan's speech of March 23, 1983, with sharp criticism voiced by its leader, Yuri Andropov, only four days after Reagan had launched his strategic defense initiative. The superpowers' present ballistic missile defense programs are stretching the limits of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The announcement of US strategic defense plans has been received in Europe, especially in Western Europe, with apprehension and dissatisfaction. Europe has found or at least is trying to find an answer to Strategic Defense Initiative technological challenge by launching its own project—Eureka.
