Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

A ballistic missile is so called because it is launched at such high speed and elevation as to require a great trajectory as it seeks its target. They are typically armed with nuclear warheads. By comparison, ground launch cruise missiles are not ballistic; they are launched in response to first strike ballistic missiles [Page 118]and are thus anti–ballistic missiles. Both are the subjects of diplomatic efforts to avoid war.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, signed in 1968 and in effect by 1970, was followed by rounds of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I and II), resulting in the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972, signed by Richard M. Nixon, president of the United States, and Leonid Breshnev, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The difference between the two treaties is that the one restricts development of weapons whereas the other monitors technology intended to detect and destroy incoming missiles. The Cold War distrust between the two superpowers prompted the diplomatic efforts to avoid a nuclear war that would be impossible to survive, as suggested by Carl Sagan's famous analogy of standing knee-deep in gasoline, one person with three matches and his competitor with five. The diplomatic strategy was called détente, meaning that threat will inhibit aggression, maintaining a stalemate.

The treaty included provisions for amendment and also for review every 5 years (Article XIV). The first two, in 1977 and 1982, resulted in brief statements acknowledging the review activity and the continuation of each side's commitment to the treaty. In 1988, each side issued lengthy statements seething with accusations of noncompliance and righteous indignation. The American statement warned that the United States will not accept Soviet violations or a double standard of treaty compliance and will reserve the right to take appropriate and proportionate responses in the future. The corresponding Soviet statement defended its radar station under construction in the Krasnoyarsk region for the tracking of space objects, dismissed American claims as assumptions and subjective evaluations, and countered with accusations of American subterfuge in Shemya, an Aleutian island relatively close to Soviet shores.

Just 5 years later, in 1993, there were no Soviet representatives at the fourth review because the Soviet Union had dissolved in 1991. Instead, a mildly worded statement acknowledged that representatives from the new sovereign nations of Belarus, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine had joined the American delegation in Geneva. Not only was there no fifth review in 1998, but before the sixth review, the United States withdrew and effectively terminated the treaty.

However, the original nonproliferation treaty remained in effect, with its own 5-year reviews. In addition, the G-8 partnership of countries with nuclear capabilities has added several other issues to the topic of nonproliferation, including chemical weapons, bioterrorism, and nuclear safety—especially following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. In 1998, Russia became a more fully functioning member of G-8, a collaboration among the nations known in World War II as Axis and Allied powers. Also, on January 1, 2002, a U.N. resolution for voluntary “transparency in armaments” called on all member states to provide annual reports on imports and exports of conventional arms. This was intended to encourage bilateral and regional dialogues on security concerns—one of the goals prompting the original talks leading to the AntiBallistic Missile Treaty and mentioned in the 5-year reviews as a rationale for continuing the agreement. On May 24, 2002, President George W. Bush and President Vladimir Putin signed the Moscow Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions, agreeing to reduce strategic nuclear warheads nearly two thirds below current levels.

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