Would a technically effective NMD system reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction to North America?
The answer to this question is Ano,@ and it has three parts B Russia, China, and the rest of the world. Russia Like the United States, Russia continues to maintain a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons premised on the familiar claim that they are needed to deter Western, or any other, nuclear forces potentially hostile to Russia. Given its current economic conditions, Russia would prefer to maintain that nuclear deterrent at much lower than current levels of weaponry. Russia has already proposed significant further reductions to Russian and US arsenals. American NMD deployment, however, would push Russia in the opposite direction. Cash-strapped Russia=s nuclear deterrent is now a shadow of its Cold War self. It is primarily land-based and thus, the Russians fear, vulnerable to pre-emptive attack by the US. They point out that the Americans continue to enhance the accuracy of their intercontinental and sea-based ballistic missiles and that, coupled with the addition of an American NMD syste
