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BATTLEFIELD OF THE FUTURE

Battlefield of the Future - Air University Press

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<strong>BATTLEFIELD</strong> <strong>OF</strong> <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FUTURE</strong><br />

the United States as the protector of their security, and they<br />

are apprehensive about what effect that might have . If the<br />

Japanese decide they must go their own way, and renounce<br />

their constitution and develop a very aggressive outreach in<br />

military capability, what would that do to the whole Pacific<br />

Rim, or to the countries that well remember WWII? So, it's<br />

important that we have the ability to share ballistic missile<br />

defenses with a country like Japan .<br />

Working with the Russians, the Japanese, and others will<br />

also affect the Chinese . The number of warheads the Chinese<br />

have is significant in terms of inflicting pain, but in terms of<br />

attacking Russia or the United States, they are probably not<br />

decisive . The Chinese are pragmatic, so you can work with<br />

them if you understand what their internal concerns are, such<br />

as control of the Chinese border . So I think that over the long<br />

term, if you ignore them in this regard and work with the<br />

Russians, the Japanese and countries like that, you can then<br />

say to the Chinese, "By the way, we're going to neutralize your<br />

ballistic missiles ."<br />

Does it mean we'll have peace? No, I don't think so . I think<br />

you have to ask yourself this one question : "Would it be a<br />

better world if we had ballistic missile defenses and no nuclear<br />

weapons, or nuclear weapons and no ballistic-missile<br />

defenses?" I think that this is the choice, and I think that is<br />

where we need to have the vision and the courage to take on<br />

this mission of ballistic missile defense in new-era warfare .<br />

Reducing Nuclear Arsenals<br />

One of the greatest potential benefits of ballistic missile<br />

defense specially shared warning and wide-area defensesis<br />

in reducing the value of nuclear ballistic missiles . There is a<br />

significant domestic value here as well, but the costs of<br />

developing, deploying, and operating such defenses are not<br />

trivial . In fact, in the current budget environment, you can't<br />

expect the military to take the lead . But I think ballistic<br />

missile defenses would compete very well, particularly if you<br />

trade them off against the cost of maintaining nuclearweapons<br />

forces .<br />

60

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