The Reagan Strategic Defense Initiative: A Technical, Political, and Arms Control Assessment

xi, [1], 147, [1] pages. Wraps. Figures. Footnotes. Glossary. Appendices. Some soiling to covers and some wear to cover edges. Sidney David Drell (September 13, 1926 - December 21, 2016) was an American theoretical physicist and arms control expert. At the time of his death, he was professor emeritus at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Drell was a noted contributor in the fields of quantum electrodynamics and high-energy particle physics. The Drell-Yan process is partially named for him. David Holloway is the Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History, a professor of political science, and an FSI senior fellow. He was co-director of CISAC from 1991 to 1997, and director of FSI from 1998 to 2003. His research focuses on the international history of nuclear weapons, on science and technology in the Soviet Union, and on the relationship between international history and international relations theory. A special report of the Center for International Security and Arms Control of Stanford University. This study of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative reviews the historical background, analyzes the technical feasibility of the Initiative, and assesses the political implications for the strategic relationship between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and their future arms control negotiations. The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons (intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles). The concept was first announced publicly by President Ronald Reagan on 23 March 1983.[1] Reagan was a vocal critic of the doctrine of mutual assured destruction (MAD), which he described as a "suicide pact", and he called upon the scientists and engineers of the United States to develop a system that would render nuclear weapons obsolete. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus. …