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U.S. Plans: Missile Defense Justification Released by White House In a policy paper released yesterday, the White House described its rationale for developing a national missile defense network, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, May 19). The National Policy on Ballistic Missile Defense Fact Sheet lays out U.S. President George W. Bush’s desire to protect the United States against missiles carrying chemical, biological or nuclear weapons with defenses that will cost more than $8 billion per year and will probably top $9 billion in fiscal 2004 alone, according to the Post. The White House directive was also intended to provide a more formal and complete account of Bush’s missile defense push, administration officials said. Last year, Bush signed a classified version of what was fundamentally the same document prior to his missile defense announcement in December (see GSN, Dec. 17, 2002). Administration officials have kept close hold on the directive, known as National Security Presidential Directive 23, while developing plans for its release (Bradley Graham, Washington Post, May 21). The document does not provide any significant deviation from previous administration statements, but it does note that U.S. missile defenses will be continuously upgraded, the New York Times reported. “The United States will not have a final, fixed missile defense architecture,” but will develop an “initial set of capabilities that will evolve to meet the changing threat,” the directive said. The White House also expressed its desire to provide missile defenses to allies, according to the document. “The defenses we will develop and deploy must be capable of not only defending the United States and our deployed forces, but also friends and allies,” the directive says. Russian Collaboration Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ivanov repeated his country’s offer to collaborate on a missile defense effort. He said, however, that cooperation would require “the preservation of each side’s intellectual property, the demilitarization of space and total transparency regarding missile defense” (see GSN, May 15; David Sanger, New York Times, May 21). Ivanov is scheduled to visit the United States this week to meet with U.S. officials, Agence France-Presse reported (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, May 21). “We are prepared to talk with the United States on the theme of cooperation in the field of anti-missile defense, but attached to the fulfillment of a number of conditions,” he said. He also warned that developing a system would take “decades.” “Tangible results cannot be expected within a year or two,” Ivanov said (Associated Press/San Jose Mercury News, May 21). Export Controls May Be Eased U.S. officials are also investigating the possible easing of export controls on missile technology, according to the Associated Press. “As part of our efforts to deepen missile cooperation with friends and allies, the United States will seek to eliminate impediments to such cooperation,” the report says. Under existing rules, it is difficult to share missile technology with most U.S. allies, AP reported. “We will review existing policies and practices governing technology-sharing and cooperation on missile defense, including U.S. export control regulations and statutes,” according to the White House policy statement. A Bush administration official said the effort was “far from a decision.” Arms control proponents, however, criticized the proposed move. “It is a silly trade-off. It shows the administration is willing to compromise international controls to transfer missile technology” to further its missile defense goals, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association (Tom Raum, Associated Press/Newsday, May 21).
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