ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to refute the idea that advanced technology can be North Atlantic Treaty Organization solution to the conventional force imbalance in Western Europe. It explores West has misunderstood and overestimated the potential benefits of technology, and therefore misapplied it. High tech weapons are difficult to develop quickly and in large numbers. Indeed, due to the nature of warfare and the multitude of factors which combine to result in victory or defeat, technology can rarely be shown to have played an exclusive or singularly decisive role. The chapter focuses on the Strategic Defense Initiative program, asking, "does it have strategic value?" It shows that the program has value as an arms control bargaining chip and a high tech laboratory. The chapter suggests that "fiber optic guided missiles is to the tank as the machinegun bullet is to the infantryman. It is likely to qualitatively change the nature of war, making the defense again the dominant form of war."
