Reagan’s Strategic Defence Initiative or Star Wars Essay (Critical Writing)

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Introduction

The Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI), often known as the Star Wars, was the idea brought forward by President Ronald Reagan. He intended to use the project to protect the United States from strategic nuclear ballistic missiles from the Soviet Union. Dr. Edward Teller, an expert in nuclear science and father of hydrogen bomb, developed the concept of this program. Reagan consulted Dr. Teller on how to develop satellites that would detect potential missiles from space and deflect them before they land.

The aim was to protect the U.S. from the Russian missile attacks. After the issue was discussed, President Reagan set up the Strategic Defence Initiative Organization to research and develop the program in nineteen eighty-four. The program has expanded since then long after the end of the Cold War (Collier 2010). After the fall of the Soviet Union, there were threats from other nations to expand their nuclear power.

Some of those nations were renowned for their international aggression ideologies. They include Iran, Iraq and North Korea. This paper analyzes the reasons why the U.S. should continue expanding its Strategic Defence Initiative by outlining the facts that support the policy of expanding the strategy.

Justifying the expansion of SDI

The success of the Strategic Defence Initiative is a good reason to support the expansion of the program. The Cold War ended abruptly and without anybody’s predictions including political, military and diplomatic analysts. It is not possible to discuss the causes of disintegration of the USSR that resulted in ending the Cold War conflict without considering the role of the Strategic Defence Initiative (Freedman 2004).

It has been argued by various scholars that the Strategic Defence Initiative was the primary reason that led to the end of the Cold War. These scholars base their argument on the fact that research conducted in Russia proved that most Russians believed that the political leadership of their country decided to cut military aggression after analysing the technological superiority behind the Strategic Defence Initiative. Another reason attributed to the success of the Strategic Defence Initiative is that it tactfully made it difficult for the two superpowers that were the USSR and the US to continue negotiations on the ways of reaching a truce on issues at that time.

The strategy tremendously improved the United States’ military strength thereby forcing the other partner to withdraw from the military rivalry. It is evident that without the tension from the Strategic Defence initiative that had lasted for long, both states could change from the Cold War to military actions. Such war could have had severe impact on all the countries in the world. If such consequences were shielded by the strategy then it is a very good reason to support the continued efforts to expand the program.

The Strategic Defence Initiative has raised the bar in the process of advancing the military technology. Dr. Edward Teller developed the concept based on the idea that the x-ray could be used to detect the missiles in space before they land. Though the idea was remote, it was advanced to develop lethal weapons. Development of new technologies defines a country’s place in terms of military superiority.

This has made countries across the world improve their military strength to guard against foreign aggression (Graebner 1986). The U.S. is not an exception. The government of the United States has invested more money in the research to help improve the program in the last twenty years. Other countries for instance Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are also improving their nuclear programs. Some do this with the aim of invading other nations.

North Korea and Iran are examples. The U.S. defends the aggrieved countries from such aggressors. Iraq attacked Kuwait, North Korea constantly threatens to attack South Korea and Iran is not clear about its reasons to advance its nuclear program. Since international aggression has already been experienced, the U.S. should continue with the process of advancing its Strategic Defence Initiative to be used to protect the aggrieved countries that do not have the military capacity to match those of the aggressor.

The US is one of the world super powers since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union therefore, it has the moral obligation of making sure that peace in the world is maintained. The high technology used by the Strategic Defence Initiative consists of a variety of technological developments that are highly progressive (Gaddis 2005). If expanding program is halted, all the money that has been spent will be wasted and the technology will be rendered obsolete.

The strategic program has cost the US billions of money in its development and as such, advanced laboratories have been created and are used in the research. Stopping the process of expanding the program would waste a lot of money that has already been spent on the program and technology developed thus far would be inconsequential. The budget for maintaining the immense program demands huge amounts of money.

This was seen when Russia tried to make their version of the Strategic Defence Initiative the same as that of the US but failed because the money that was supposed to be use could not be sustained by its economy. A question to be raised if the process of expending the strategy is stopped is how will America be protected? Certain actions taken by countries advancing their nuclear programs such as Iran have been supported by other leading economies including China and Russia. This type of support is dangerous and only the U.S. steps in to protect the countries with weaker military strength (Matlock 2004).

Collaboration among states which motives for expanding their nuclear are not disclosed could result in one country wiping another completely from the face of the earth. Such actions are unacceptable and the US must have superior military artillery to protect the occurrence of such a disasters.

Conclusion

The US has demonstrated that it can protect other nations once they are beseeched. It protected Kuwait when it was attacked by Iraq. Furthermore, it has been crucial in preventing the outbreak of war between Israel and Iran. The presence of the US in South Korea has prevented the aggression ideologies of North Korea. When Afghanistan was taken over by uncouth leaders, the US was present to save the people of Afghanistan.

The laboratories dealing with research in this field have been used in addressing other medical issues. Knowledge applied in this area has been used in the treatment of cancer. The laboratory experiments have been used in helping the medical practitioners engage in extensive research that has led to several discoveries on the condition. The Strategic Defence Initiative helps bringing peace without militarily engagements (Duric 2003).

Though the program helped end the Cold War, there were no military advances between the two nations. The strength shown by the strategy is enough to solve conflicts using economical means as it did during the Cold War. The Soviet Union invested a lot of money in their strategy to counter the SDI and ended collapsing its economy. The strategy helps to bring peace in the world without fighting. These are enough reasons that can be presented to support the continued process of expanding the Strategic Defence Initiative.

References

Collier, P. (2010). Guns, War, and Votes democracy in dangerous places. New York: Harper perennial.

Duric, M. (2003).The Strategic Defence Initiative: US policy and the Soviet Union. Burlington: Ashgate.

Freedman, L. (2004). Deterrence. Massachusetts: Polity Press, 2004.

Graebner, N. (1986).The National Security: Its Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.

Gaddis, J. (2005). The Cold War: A New History. New York: Penguin Press.

Matlock, J. (2004). Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended. New York: Random House.

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