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	CIAO Focus, July 2000: Ballistic Missile Defense
	This month's major test failure brings ballistic missile defense back to headline news. Criticized for a go-it-alone policy by Europe and pilloried by Russia and China, the Clinton Administration faces limited options. What many consider to be politically and scientifically impossible, others see as a necessary and realizable achievement. A recent letter to President Clinton from 50 Nobel laureates aims to dissuade further research and development. Fears that ballistic defense might greatly increase the danger of nuclear war are their chief concern. The administration's best option may be to do nothing, passing the decision to the next presidency and, for the time being, avoiding an international quagmire. Costly and potentially unworkable, but heavily invested in by American expectations, ballistic missile defense points to a central dilemma in the 21st century: how much security can technology provide? This month, CIAO explores ballistic defense. From CIAO's database: Missile Defense Failures Offer Lessons Star Wars Revisited: Still Dangerous, Costly, and Unworkable The Rise and Fall of START II: The Russian View A Simple Model for Calculating Ballistic Missile Defense Effectiveness Outside Links*: Missile Defense Agency http://www.mda.mil/mdalink/html/mdalink.html Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish News Briefing (Real Audio) http://www.defenselink.mil/cgi-bin/real_audio.pl?DoD070700&963034200 Federation of American Scientists http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/program/nmd/index.html * Outside links are not maintained. For broken outside links, CIAO recommends the Way Back Machine [http://www.archive.org/].