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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

The ABM Treaty

Book ·
OSTI ID:5473033
The foremost challenge of this age and the next is to harness our political resources to prevent the East-West relationship from turning into a conflict. Among the measures employed to stabilize the strategic relationship, the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty is of profound importance. It codifies the central principle of the nuclear age: a co-operative approach in limiting offensive and defensive strategic forces. This principle has been challenged-both by failures in East and West to resist the allure of technology and by a more general errosion of political will to tackle together the problems of the nuclear offence-defence relationship. This paper makes a contribution to the debate over the strategic relationship, in particular the role of the ABM Treaty. It is first in a series of Strategic Issue Papers (SIP) that address topical issues of international peace and security. In order to contribute to a better understanding of the problems involved and to stimulate debate, SIPRI has produced this book before the commencement of the third ABM Treaty Review Conference.
OSTI ID:
5473033
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English