ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to delineate the pressures which brought antiballistic missile (ABM) to the point of deployment at that time. It analyses the continuing pressures for deployment before identifying some of the considerations which could render ABM controversial once again. The willingness of Congress and the American public to pay for a major expansion in defence capability, including ABM, depends in large degree upon the success of Reaganomics, yet it is already clear that the Administration has been unable to cope with many of the major problems that afflict the American economy. For the moment though, the domestic political context in the United States suggests that the ABM Treaty of 1972 is not in immediate danger. Although a repetition of the full scale Congressional battles of the late 1960s is unlikely, there are several factors that may qualify or inhibit the prospects for ballistic missile defense in the coming years.
