This history of the Strategic Defense Initiative ranges across politics, economics, strategic studies and international relations, and provides the latest research into the SDI interest groups, the distribution of contracts, and the politics of influence. It discusses the wider contexts of 'Star Wars', such as alliance management, marketing, and domestic politics, and its military spin-offs, especially for anti-satellite (ASAT) and 'space control' programmes. The author tests the theoretical literature on the dynamics of the arms race by using SDI as a case study, and draws evidence from sources such as congressional hearings, interviews, the trade press, restricted briefing papers, and documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act. The book follows the fortunes of strategic defence into the changed global conditions of the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet bloc, the Gulf War, and President Bush's announcement of a refocused SDI, the Global Protection Against Limited Strikes (GPALS).

Most people think Star Wars began with the ideas of Ronald Reagan, but its roots reach decades further back. In this first scholarly account of the origins of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), historian Don Baucom traces these roots back to the dawn of the missile age in 1944. He finds SDI emerging after a period of nearly 40 years from forces generated by technological developments, changing strategic conditions, and the collapse of the SALT arms control negotiations of the 1970s.

En summarisk analyse af strategiske forhold i forbindelse med udviklingen af SDI samt politiske betragtninger over USAs allieredes reaktioner på SDI. Modtaget fra USIS

The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) to develop a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system has both short-range and long-range risks as well as potential benefits. For the most part, however, strategic, technological, and political issues relevant to SDI have been analyzed in isolation from one another. This book provides a more inclusive framework for assessing the possible development and deployment of a BMD system by the United States or the Soviet Union. Contributors discuss the risks for arms race stability, probable reactions of the Soviet Union to any U.S. space-based defense system, and implications for the stability of extended deterrence commitments to NATO European allies. They also evaluate Soviet research and development programs in missile defense that must be considered in any extrapolation of the requirements for U.S. deterrence in the next several decades.

Central to US foreign policy, the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) was launched by Ronald Reagan in 1983. While the Reagan administration failed to deploy the SDI system, it featured prominently in the relationship between the US and the Soviet Union. This insightful book examines SDI and the Reagan administration through an evaluation of the role of the SDI in the end of the Cold War. Presenting an extensive range of primary and secondary material together with interviews, the book will be welcomed by academics and upper level students interested in politics and history.