Anti-Missile Defense System of the United States and Nuclear Deterrenc

Subject Areas :

Aliasghar Kazemi ¹ , Mohammad Hosseinzadeh ²

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Received: 2013-05-03 Accepted : 2013-06-15 Published : 2013-06-01

Keywords: nuclear deterrence, Cold War, anti, missile defense, massive retaliation, ballistic missile treaty, defense as an offensive,

Abstract :

he expansion of anti-missile system of the United States has led to several reactions from other international actors. Some of the Western countries especially the United States’ allies consider the deployment of these systems as providing their security and the stability of international system. On the other hand countries like China and in particular Russia consider these systems as a destabilizing factor for international security and disrupting the nuclear deterrence and therefore a threat to their security. The present descriptive analytical paper examines the relations between the United States anti-missile system and nuclear deterrence. For this reason it defines the concept and the characteristic of nuclear deterrence strategy and missile defense system and then examines the relation of these two concepts before the Cold War and after of the end of Cold War. The finding is that during the Cold War the anti-missile system were in the direction of stabilizing balance of power, therefore, it led to stability but after the end of Cold War, though in the face of it is defensive but in reality it is offensive and it ignores the balancing strategy and it is in the direction of military-nuclear superiority.