U.S. Army War College epub EUROPEAN MISSILE DEFENSE and RUSSIA

U.S. attitudes to missiledefense capability, stemming from a continued failureto achieve meaningful dialogue over U.S. plans andRussian fears.Russia’s vehement objections to U.S. plans for missiledefense installations in Europe, and the range ofunfriendly actions promised in response, are oftenportrayed as irrational, the arguments technicallyflawed, the behavior deliberately obstructive, and theunderlying threat perception hopelessly out of date.2Yet, an examination of the missile defense relationshipbetween Russia and the United States over timeshows that the fundamental Russian concerns stemfrom ideas of state security which, while discountedelsewhere, remain valid in the Russian security calculus.The fundamentally different weight and importanceattached by Russia to nuclear weapons as both a guarantee and a symbol of statehood can be challengingfor U.S. observers to grasp, but it is critical tounderstanding those Russian statements that do not,at first sight, make rational sense to U.S. policymakers.Furthermore, while the current Russian proposalsfor compromise—at least those stated in public—arewholly unrealistic, bear in mind that some of the securityconsiderations behind them, at various times, havebeen both shared and voiced by the United States.This monograph will examine the historical precedentsfor the current missile defense impasse in orderto explain the Russian attitude and draw conclusionsabout both the most recent developments in the conversationbetween the United States and Russia, andits likely further progress and prospects, if any, for aresolution.