ABSTRACT
The two pillars to the debate on strategic defense are the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty of 1972 and the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) announced by President Reagan in 1983. In this chapter, the authors present several ideas about what the ABM Treaty is and what it could be, and then take a similar look at possible futures for the SDI. Because the "new interpretation" of the agreement what the authors address as version rv radically alters its meaning, they limit their discussion for the moment to the "historical" interpretation, which is accepted by most analysts and endorsed by almost all individuals who negotiated the treaty. As negotiations on strategic offense and defense enter a serious, non-polemical, stage, the Soviets will likely tone down their space-strike approach and turn attention to the critical issue: which of ABM Treaty versions I, II, or III should be pursued.
