Six Reasons Republican Resurgence Will Make Missile Defense A Priority (From Forbes)
The biggest manmade threat to America’s survival is the specter of nuclear war. But you’d never know that from the way the Obama Administration has dealt with national missile defense over the last six years. In a typical year, less than one in every thousand federal dollars spent goes to technology that might intercept ballistic-missile attacks against the U.S. homeland. However, Republican victory in last week’s election signals that is about to change. The GOP has always favored active defense against nuclear attack over deterrence or disarmament, and voters are far more favorably disposed to homeland defense than foreign interventions. In addition, threat trends are undermining traditional theories of nuclear security at a time when missile-defense technology is improving markedly. The kind of nuclear attack likely to occur today is much smaller than during the Cold War, making effective defense more feasible. And increasing funds for national missile defense is easy to reconcile with deficit reduction. I have written a commentary for Forbes here.
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