PHYSICS SEMINAR

Greg Domin
Department of Political Science
 Mercer University 

Wednesday, November 28, 2001, 4:30pm
Willet Science Center 109
(Overflow to WSC 101, if necessary...)

“Missile Defense in the 21^st Century: Threat, Cost, and Effectiveness”

In this talk, I lay out the earlier missile defense developmental history, the political premises inherent in the earlier Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and the threat and policy justifications now being suggested as supporting national level missile defense.  The essential arguments sustaining such a technologically challenged program are developed in terms of an ideological continuum ranging from the believers as crystallized in the original ABM treaty (anti-ballistic missile treaty), the pragmatists who still drive the debate in Washington, and the Wilsonians who won the first round in the struggle over ballistic missile defense decades ago.  Underlying this entire discussion lurks the technological imperative always so powerful as a motivational force within American strategic thinking.  The talk also examines the threat, cost, and effectiveness of such a system.  The talk concludes by analyzing the current debate and offers some conclusions as to the efficacy of missile defense in the 21^st century and beyond.

Please join us for light refreshments at 4:15.