06/19/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09955

WOLFOWITZ ON U.S. AND RUSSIA

On June 13^th, the United States formally withdrew from the 1972 Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty. The treaty was ratified by the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the détente period of the Cold War. It stopped what would have been a defensive arms race between the world’s superpowers. At the time, the U.S. and the Soviet Union had enough ballistic missiles to destroy each other. An attack by one on the other would have resulted in massive destruction to both.

But the world has changed in the past thirty years. The Soviet Union no longer exists. Today the threat is from international terrorism. As President George W. Bush said, "We have moved beyond an A-B-M Treaty that prevented us from defending our people and our friends."

The U.S. and others are now faced with a two-fold threat: terrorists and terrorist-sponsoring states that seek weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. is committed to working with other nations to meet this threat, including through deployment of missile-defense systems. These systems will be designed to counter threats from other regimes that have both weapons of mass destruction and linkages to terrorist groups.

The end of the A-B-M treaty marks a milestone in U.S. relations with Russia. As U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said, "We no longer have a treaty that divides us by assuming that our security is derived from our ability to destroy each other. We can now base our relations not on mutual destruction but on mutual interests. It was clear during President Bush’s visit to Moscow and St. Petersburg that both countries are committed to the new course.

By moving beyond the A-B-M treaty, the U.S. removes a Cold War structure that, as Mr. Wolfowitz put it, "prevented us from defending ourselves in the name of preserving the nuclear balance of terror. . . . We take this step in full confidence that doing so will not cause an arms race with Russia, as some had predicted. . . . Future U.S.-Russian summits will not be dominated by the question: What treaty are you planning to sign to regulate the nuclear balance of terror? Instead," said Mr. Wolfowitz, "we will focus on cooperating to meet the security challenges facing both our nations, the war on terrorism, and what we can do to enrich the lives of our peoples through closer economic, cultural, and political ties."

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the time has come to bury the last vestiges of the Cold War. By working with Russia and adapting to new terrorist threats, the U.S. can help make the world a safer place for years to come.