As the Clinton administration finishes dusting itself off from its stunning defeat on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, it should stop fretting about the dangers of the supposed new isolationism and move on to a serious effort to avoid the next train wreck. Within little more than six months, the president will have to decide whether or not the United States will proceed with deploying a national missile defense. But a failure now to devote serious and sustained attention to working with Capitol Hill to ensure a successful outcome will lead to a disaster whose impact on domestic politics and on our relations with Europe and Russia will make CTBT seem like a mere fender-bender.
Missile defense is a tough issue.
The Europeans worry that we are abandoning them to a Fortress America. The Russians fear their strategic deterrent will become meaningless. And deployment of even a limited national missile defense system will violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Presidential elections in both the United States and Russia in 2000 only add to the difficulty. In short, few could have found a worse time to develop a policy that can square the circle of a serious U.S. effort to defend against rogue states and accidental launches while at the same time not causing damage to our core alliance or our important work with Moscow to ensure nuclear safety.