Atomic Clouds on the Horizon? Russian and Chinese Opposition to U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense Systems
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- On December 13, 2001, President George W. Bush announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the 1972 Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (ABM Treaty). Due to the threat posed by Iran and North Korea, the U.S. has sought to deploy missile defenses in Eastern Europe and Northeast Asia. Russia and China have consistently opposed these deployments, claiming that they threaten strategic stability and seek to counter threats from Russia’s and China’s nuclear arsenals. However, past literature has not thoroughly examined Russia and China together to explain this opposition. This thesis seeks to understand why Russia and China object to the deployment of U.S. missile defense systems and what the U.S. does to address those objections. Through examining government documents, official statements, and expert analysis, this thesis analyzes U.S. missile defense policy since its withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, Russian and Chinese responses, and how allies in Eastern Europe and Northeast Asia view U.S. ballistic missile defense (BMD) policy. This research finds that in the short term, the U.S. is able to strengthen alliances and offer extended deterrence through BMD deployments; precisely for this reason, bolstered U.S. alliances are worrisome for Russia and China. In the longer term, the U.S. sees its evolutionary and adaptable future capabilities as an advantage, but Russia and China view the future of U.S. missile defense as a threat likely to turn into a global missile defense, which includes improved missile defense technology. The alliance finding is particularly consequential, and shows that Russian and Chinese opposition of and U.S. support for BMDs is more political than it is technical. Because missile defense will continue to be a point of contention between the U.S., Russia, and China, it is important to understand why this is an issue.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 23, 2018 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Levikow, Gabriela |
|---|---|
| Advisor | Hecker, Siegfried S. |
| Advisor | Holloway, David |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation |
Subjects
| Subject | Center for International Security and Cooperation |
|---|---|
| Subject | missile defense |
| Subject | foreign policy |
| Subject | United States |
| Subject | Russia |
| Subject | China |
| Subject | strategic stability |
| Subject | nuclear deterrence |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Levikow, Gabriela. (2018). Atomic Clouds on the Horizon? Russian and Chinese Opposition to U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense Systems. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/vm168hn1156
Collection
Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Interschool Honors Program in International Security Studies, Theses
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- Contact
- glevikow@stanford.edu
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