Bloomsbury Academic Pursuit of the Shield: The U.S. Quest for Limited Ballistic Missile Defense

Product Description Since the 1960s, U.S. political leaders have engaged in a controversial debate regarding the deployment of a strategic ballistic missile defense (BMD) system to protect the American homeland. Using an analytic framework consisting of prerequisites for successful strategic weapon programs, this book assesses BMD proposals from the Cold War era (focusing primarily on the 1967 "Sentinel" proposal). The book develops a consensus-building approach to future strategic BMD policies that is based on lessons learned from Cold War proposals, recent congressional initiatives, and developments in the international security environment. To protect the American people from emerging rogue state threats and potential accidental or unauthorized launches from China and Russia, the United States should deploy a limited strategic BMD system comprising multiple ground-based interceptor sites supported by space-based missile tracking sensors. The study includes a comprehensive arms control proposal aimed at working with Russia and other strategic powers to continue the reduction of Cold War offensive arsenals while deploying limited defenses. Pursuit of the Shield presents a new strategic agenda for a new era, one that will reinforce world peace and security. With a foreword by Senator John Warner, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Review McMahon's 'Pursuit of the Shield' is a thoughtful addition to the strategic defense debate. Although many will not agree with him, he is consistent and thorough in proposing an approach that combines limited ballistic missile defenses with a comprehensive arms control proposal. His treatment of the history of the debate, the threat profiles, and the technologies will be useful to both proponents and opponents of strategic defenses.--Rose Gottemoeller, International Institute for Strategic Studies "A well-documented history of how policy, ideology, and politics have kept America vulnerable to ballistic missile attack."--Ambassador Henry Cooper, director of High Frontier; former director of the US Defense Department's Strategic Defense Initiative Organization "McMahon's program...is timely and innovative...Pursuit of the Shield is a provocative work; it is a 'must read' for students of strategic doctrine and arms control."--Paul Hammond, Ridgeway Center for International Studies, University of Pittsburgh About the Author K. Scott McMahon is a National Security Analyst at Pacific-Sierra Research Corporation in Arlington, Virginia and has ten years of academic and professional experience in the field of U.S. foreign and defense policy.