James H. Anderson

About the author: James H. Anderson is a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a public policy think-tank. He is the author of America at Risk: The Citizen's Guide to Missile Defense.

The United States should deploy a national nuclear missile defense system in order to protect itself and its allies from proliferating nuclear threats. Danger from nuclear disaster has increased because missile capabilities have advanced worldwide and deterrence-oriented strategies that depended upon a rational opponent such as the former Soviet Union will be ineffective against new, irrational enemies such as Iraq. A nuclear defense system will cost less today than it did during the Cold War, can be updated as better technologies are developed, and would not violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty...