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SDI — a Topic of Transatlantic Consultation and of Debate in International Parliamentary Bodies

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Star Wars and European Defence

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Abstract

President Reagan’s Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) has become a major security issue both of transatlantic bilateral and multilateral consultations and of debate in three international parliamentary bodies: in the North Atlantic Assembly, in the Assembly of the WEU and in the European Parliament. However, the debate on a missile defence system (ABM) which includes Europe is not new. Twice within two decades the United States has initiated this debate without any prior consultation with its allies. In 1967, the then United States Defence Minister McNamara suggested a land-based terminal defence system (Sentinel) as a counter to the perceived Chinese ballistic missile threat, and sixteen years later President Reagan presented his radical vision of overcoming deterrence by deploying a multilayered BMD system. Many of the same arguments for and against such a system were already articulated in the first ABM debate from 1967 to 1972.

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Notes

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Authors
  1. Hans Günter Brauch
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Political Science, Stuttgart University, Germany

    Hans Günter Brauch (Chairman, Study Group on Peace Research and European Security Studies, Lecturer in International Relations) (Chairman, Study Group on Peace Research and European Security Studies, Lecturer in International Relations)

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© 1987 Hans Günter Brauch

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Brauch, H.G. (1987). SDI — a Topic of Transatlantic Consultation and of Debate in International Parliamentary Bodies. In: Brauch, H.G. (eds) Star Wars and European Defence. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08615-3_9

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