The Strategic Defense Initiative

Paper Summary:

The paper looks at the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and outlines its emergence, its re-emergence under the administration of George W. Bush, and why it proved so controversial. The paper utilizes a sociological perspective, assessing what fears and preoccupations in American society have allowed the costly and untested SDI to remain a viable policy option. The paper concludes that paranoia about America's place in the world relative to the Soviet Union and a sense that the United States is always under threat of imminent attack, have made the SDI seem like a worthy policy consideration for the United States of America. The paper includes an annotated bibliography.

From the Paper:

"To begin with, Ronald Reagan's advocacy of the "Star Wars" program in 1983 was rooted in an almost-religious faith in technology and in the hope it offered; in short, he wished to replace the politics of fear with a new politics that would encourage the nation's citizens to place their trust in the ability of (military) technology to protect them from any nuclear holocaust. Obviously, military types (the ones who would be overseeing something as enormous as the SDI) loved it because "Star Wars" gave them pre-eminence in the grand scheme of things; further, politicians in Washington were drawn to the SDI (and remain so today) because it afforded a vision of an America impervious to the dangers of the world and invulnerable to events happening elsewhere - and also invulnerable to the pressures contingent with having to be accountable to others beyond their borders for foreign policy decisions."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Aucoin, Les (D-Ore.). (1983, March 24). House comments on the president's SDI speech. Cong. Rec., 98th Cong., 1st Sess., 129 (39): H1700-2.
• Russian weapons, fissile materials, and reactors? Nuclear Terrorism: How to Prevent it. Retrieved February 15, 2007 from <http://www.nci.org/nuketerror.htm>
• House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Defense. (1983, March 23). Department of Defense Appropriations for 1984, Part 8, 98th Cong., 1st Sess.
• Missile defense and the Democrats. (2007, January 31). The Washington Times, p.A18.
• Mosco, Vincent, and Foster, Derek. (2001). Cyberspace and the end of politics. Journal of Communications Inquiry, 25(3): 218-236.

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