Russian Nuclear Weapons: Past, Present, and Future

MISSILE DEFENSE IN U.S.-RUSSIAN
RELATIONSHIP
American missile defense plans are an old issue
in U.S.-Russian relations. They date back to Reagan’s
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI); tensions declined in
the early 1990s, but began to build up again toward
the end of that decade and reached the peak during
the last decade as a result of U.S. withdrawal from the
ABM Treaty and the subsequent announcement of the
intention to deploy 10 interceptors in Poland and a
radar in Czech Republic. The announcement in September
2009 of a change in missile defense plans for
Europe helped to significantly alleviate the acrimony,
but did not remove it completely.
Thus conflict has continued for almost 3 decades.
A truly curious element of the picture is that strategic
missile defense still does not exist. So far, it has all
been about intentions and the projected capability of
the future system.
Another curious element is that there is actually
very little to be said about the nature and the dynamic
of that conflict. The fault lines are simple and straightforward;
they have not changed in many years.
The Russian view of missile defense is informed
by the traditional view of strategic deterrence built
around mutual vulnerability. Underlying Russian opposition
is fear that the United States could acquire the
ability to deny Russia ability to respond to an attack;
this concern was shaped in the 1980s by SDI plans.
Even though the likelihood of a large-scale nuclear
war is practically nonexistent, there is fear that such a
capability could be used as a leverage to extract concessions
and exert political pressure. In other words,
it goes straight to the heart of the view that nuclear
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