ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how quickly and significantly positions on National Missile Defense (NMD) changed at the end of the Cold War. Once the Early Deployment effort faded, supporters of NMD took a more cautious stance and there was a period of about three years when several competing views were given for continuing with NMD planning and research. One of the most comprehensive rationales was the argument for a "cooperative transition" from security based on offense to systems emphasizing defense. As the Bush Administration was laying the groundwork for a basic change in Strategic Defense Initiative, two developments fundamentally altered the context in which NMD was being assessed. Progress on the START negotiations meant there was a reasonable chance that the size of the Soviet missile force would be reduced substantially, and the Persian Gulf War proved to be the first test of whether ballistic missile defenses would work under battlefield conditions.
