ABSTRACT
Following the Iraqi Scud attacks against Israel and Saudi Arabia during the 1991 Gulf War, ballistic missile proliferation particularly in conjunction with actual or potential nuclear weapons capabilities has emerged as a central US security concern. Gordon Oehler, the director of the CIA's new non-proliferation centre, added that those countries thought most likely to develop ICBMs in the next decade are not any of the major Third World countries that the US is interested in for political reasons. The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), initiated in 1987 with seven members, has grown to include 23 Western industrialized countries. Several additional countries including Russia, China and Israel have pledged to abide by MTCR export guidelines, but for various reasons have not been invited to become formal members. At the October 1986 Reykjavik Summit, President Reagan proposed the complete elimination of US and Soviet ballistic missiles; this idea was known as zero ballistic missiles (ZBM).
