IMPACTS: ABM TREATY IS DESTROYED BY NMD

MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM REQUIRES ABM TREATY RENEGOTIATION

David Buchan and Stephen Fidler: Financial Times (London) October 6, 1999, Pg. 22 HEADLINE: Star Wars strikes back: Will a US plan to create a shield against missile attacks start a new arms race, // ln-acs

Even the minimalist NMD system that Mr Clinton envisages - just to shield the US from a North Korean rocket, for example - would require some modification of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. This pact severely restricts US and Russian defences in the interest of keeping each vulnerable to the other's nuclear weapons and maintaining mutual deterrence.

NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE CANNOT BE DEPLOYED WITHOUT BREAKING THE ABM TREATY IN ITS PRESENT FORM

Gautam Malkini Financial Times (London) April 21, 1999, SECTION: US AND CANADA; Pg. 04 HEADLINE: Threat to Russia, US arms treaty // lnu-acs

Congress has passed bills calling for a nationwide missile defence system, which cannot be achieved within the present framework of the treaty.

THE KIND OF NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM WE NEED TO STOP SO-CALLED "ROGUE" STATES IS EXACTLY THE KIND BANNED BY THE ABM TREATY

Rupert Cornwell, The Independent (London) August 21, 1999, SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 4 HEADLINE: COMMENT: THE NUCLEAR WORLD: TIME TO TAKE STOCK; A TERRORIST'S BOMB IN A SUITCASE IS PROBABLY THE GREATEST NUCLEAR THREAT TO AMERICA // lnu-acs

The biggest threat of all, however, is posed by so-called "rogue states", the Irans, Iraqs and North Koreas of this world, developing missiles which could carry nuclear warheads.

To counter this danger, America would like precisely the kind of ABM system banned by the treaty: not the SDI shield which could never have coped with an all-out Soviet attack, but a more attainable system capable of dealing with a smaller attack - for argument's sake by North Korea, which any day now could test its Taepo-Dong II long-range missile, capable of hitting Alaska, Hawaii, and conceivably California. And not only America feels the need.

THE DRIVE TOWARDS NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE WILL DESTROY THE ABM TREATY

Even so, the odds are that a faded old beauty will be discarded. Treaties are like roses, General de Gaulle famously observed, they last while they last. As the non-proliferation dam crumbles, so does the logic behind the 1972 agreement. An unpredictable new nuclear world is upon us, which makes the era of MAD appear sane. The ABM treaty has done noble service, but its time is past.