{"product_id":"9780313016158","title":"The Phantom Defense: America's Pursuit of the Star Wars Illusion","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the past four decades, the United States has spent $85 billion pursuing the fantasy of an effective missile defense system to shield our nation against the threat of a nuclear attack. Recent public tests, while less exotic than some of the original Star Wars proposals, were spectacular failures and call into question the whole program's rationale. Neither the land-based system proposed by the Clinton administration, nor the alternatives proposed by earlier administrations, would ever work--regardless of how much R\u0026amp;D money is channeled into the project. Rather than enhancing national security, these doomed efforts would provoke a new arms race and alienate key allies. The authors apply their extensive insiders' expertise to argue that thoughtful diplomacy is the only real answer to meet America's national security goals.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike President Reagan with his Star Wars program, President Bush has again made national missile defense (NMD) a national priority at a cost which may exceed $150 billion in the next ten years. Defense experts Eisendrath, Goodman, and Marsh contend that recent tests give little confidence that any of the systems under consideration--land-based, boost-phase, or laser-driven--have any chance of effective deployment within decades. The interests of the military-industrial complex and the unilateralist views of the Bush administration are driving NMD, not a desire to promote national security.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRather than increase U.S. security, the plans of the current administration, if implemented, will erode it. NMD will heighten the threat from China and Russia, alienate key allies, and provoke a new arms race and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, all in response to a greatly exaggerated threat from so-called rogue states, such as North Korea and Iran. Thoughtful diplomacy, not a misguided foreign policy based on a hopeless dream of a Fortress America, is the real answer to meeting Americas security goals. Designed to stimulate interest and debate among the public and policy-makers, The Phantom Defense provides solid facts and combines scientific, geopolitical, historical, and strategic analysis to critique the delusion of national missile defense, while suggesting a more effective alternative.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070019223792,"sku":"9780313016158","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780313016158_p0.jpg?v=1763678026","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780313016158","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}