5 - Shield of Invulnerability

Summary

This chapter examines America’s quest for a comprehensive missile defense system in the post-Cold War era. Major weapons systems – especially those that come with a high price tag – require a successful political coalition that supports the initial research and future deployment of particular weapons systems over possible alternatives. The chapter shows how political agents who were supportive of missile defense succeeded in keeping the costly and highly contentious endeavor of creating a shield of invulnerability from an attack with ballistic missiles alive as the ‘holy grail’ of the US defense policy agenda. Key to this effort was how the changed external security environment was reinterpreted as fluid, fast-changing, and dangerous. Rather than the end of Cold War hostilities reducing the perceived need for ballistic missile defense, which seemed a likely outcome in the early 1990s, the ‘uncertainty doctrine’ served to strengthen the rationale for developing a comprehensive system.