Sdi

Hughes presents a comprehensive view of European attitudes toward the controversial Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Discusses major issues raised by Europeans, analyses arguments, and examines the often voiced European objection that SDI might encourage war fighting rather than maintain deterrence. Also illuminates the new threat posed by missiles in the hands of more nations that will possess them by the mid-1990s. Concludes by discussing the possibility that the Soviets in particular may find such defenses to be in their own interest.

Strategic Defense Initiative examines developments in the technologies currently being researched under SDI. The OTA does not repeat the work of its earlier reports but gives special attention to filling in gaps in those reports and to describing technical progress made in the intervening period. The report also presents information on the prospects for functional survival against preemptive attack of alternative ballistic missile defense system architectures now being considered under the SDI. Finally, it analyzes the feasibility of developing reliable software to perform the battle management tasks required by such system architectures.

Originally published in 1987. European concerns about strategic defense and its impact on the stability of the East-West strategic balance have been the subject of frequent and lively discussion at the Institute for East-West Security Studies in the more than four years since President Reagan announced his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) in Marc