Star Wars: A Dangerous Chimera

The Strategic Defense Initiative or “Star Wars” is dominating the national security debate. Star Wars is seen by some as “the most radical change in strategic policy since World War II” (Business Week, June 20, 1983), combining radically new technologies in a way that will render “nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete” (President Reagan, March 23, 1983). It is also attacked as a system that will set “in motion a chain of events and reactions th...