In his years of presidency, George W. Bush proposed adding a defensive missile shield in “Russia’s Backyard” to prevent attack from Iran. These shields would consist of a radar station situated in the Czech Republic and multiple U.S interceptor missile sites housed in Poland which would protect the United States from potential Iranian nuclear harassment. This past summer, many threats were received from Moscow about these plans, claiming it to be a defence against Russian arms. Although both Mr. Bush and current president Barrack Obama have assured it is no threat to Russia, the plans have recently been scrapped, creating huge controversy over who the United States is trying to please, and why they have decided to leave themselves and their allies in potential danger. Originally, George Bush had signed an agreement with the Czech Republic and Poland to set up missile sites within the boundaries of their countries. As shown in the image below, missile sites would be places just beside Redzikowo air base in Poland. The defended area is seen to be the entirety of Europe (as these shields were meant for defensive purposes only), though as Russia has commented, the only known Iranian missile, the Shahab-3, has a maximum range of about 2,000km. This distance is not even enough to reach the outer boundaries of Poland, let alone the United States. Whilst the plans were made as a “precaution” to unknown weapons, Russia believes that the U.S “can postpone their decision until there’s a realistic threat” (senior Russian official talking to BBC). After numerous threats from Moscow, the United States did exactly this, postponed their land-based missile shields. This decision was seen by Russia as a “breakthrough for relations between Moscow ... ... middle of paper ... ...her it is Canadian, Russian, or even International), if this route is deemed as international waters, it is almost certain that NATO warships will be present there. Because of this new thought, Russia has reconsidered their threats to remove the land-based missiles. With missiles in Poland, radars could always detect any missile activity, though with warships in the Northern Sea Route, it is nearly impossible to tell where NATO is located. It is clear that though this issue has been solved for the time being, there is still much more room for further development and debate. While some will believe that removing the land-based missiles was a clear and wise move, others will always have the opposite opinion. But, as an act of relations and strategic planning, Obama has created the perfect link between American arms and Russian military that has been seen to date.
...roposed that if the U.S. removed its missiles from Turkey then Russia would remove its missiles from Cuba. Robert Kennedy wanted Soviet missiles and offensive weapons removed from Cuba under UN inspection. Later that same day, a U.S. U-2 was shot down over Cuba. Bombardment of Cuba was the initial reaction, but JFK calmed everyone down. The next day on October 28, Russia agreed to withdraw their missiles from Cuba. If they had not, war may have begun.
1 The missiles were being brought to Cuba by Russian leader, Nikita Khrushchev, who guaranteed President Kennedy that the missiles would never be used as a weapon against the United States. This is a lie. Khrushchev fully intended to use the missiles as a mechanism of defense against the United States and as a way to further pursue a relationship with Fidel Castro, who was the President of Cuba at the time. The United States needed to find a way to stop the development of missile sites without causing a break out of violent warfare.
National Missile Defense (NMD) is an extremely complex land-based ballistic missile system with the sole purpose of defending the United States against a ballistic missile attack from a foreign country. The NMD architecture consists of five main components.
...r responsibility in addressing its alliances and protecting the flow of energy resources in the European region. Use of force through NATO in Crimea is also not likely as the increased escalation of force or war is not worth risking lives in order to uphold the image of sovereignty of a non-NATO country.
After thirteen days of conflict, both superpowers agreed to withdraw their missiles. Although it was a stalemate, in the US this was presented as a major victory. Nuclear war was avoided without any loss of life or destruction. Just as in the Berlin Crisis, Kennedy used diplomacy to resolve conflicts with the Soviet Union. For Kennedy, “his readiness to offer negotiations was in part based on a politician’s belief
The Soviet Union and the United States were very distant during three decades of a nuclear arms race. Even though the two nations never directly had a battle, the Cuban Missile Crisis, amongst other things, was a result of the tension. The missile crisis began in October of 1962, when an American spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union in Cuba. JFK did not want the Soviet Union and Cuba to know that he had discovered the missiles, so he made his decisions very secretly. Eventually, Kennedy decided to place a ring of ships around Cuba and place missiles in Turkey. Eventually, both leaders superpowers realized the possibility of a nuclear war and agreed to a deal in which the Soviets would remove the missiles from Cuba if the US didn't invade Cuba. Even though the Soviets removed took their missiles out of Cuba and the US eventually taking their missiles out of Turkey, they (the Soviets) continued to build a more advanced military; the missile crisis was over, but the arms race was not.
Khrushchev’s finally accepts the proposal the of removing Soviet missiles out of Cuba in exchange for United States removing its missiles from Turkey in a few months. Perhaps Khrushchev’s acquiescence can be explained by the political-bargaining model, which predicts that parties involved in a disagreement, where the states are incredibly high, would be motivated to take any necessary steps via a bargaining process to reach a resolution.
After the Korean War, it was believed that the United States’ nuclear build-up had played a key role in achieving armistice. At this time, early in President Eisenhower's term in office, he had announced his policy of nuclear superiority. During this time period of nuclear build up, the Soviet Union began to find ways to overcome deficiencies in their strategic technologies2. Not soon after Eisenhower made his policy known, Russia became the first country to successfully test ICBMs, or Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. These tactical nuclear weapons are land based rocket propelled vehicles capable of intercontinental range in excess of 4000 nautical miles....
missiles in Cuba if the Americans removed their missile installations in Turkey." Few says later
Evaluating threats to America’s national security is a challenge that is undertaken by academics, intelligence analysts, policy-makers, and anyone else with the patience. During the Cold War, America’s biggest concern was easy to define, the only other state capable of competing with America, the Soviet Union. Today, America faces threats from states, non-state actors, domestic groups, and even economic conditions. However, two states should always be kept in mind when discussing national security, China and Russia, with China being the biggest threat.
We were already in a cold war, not knowing wither if these missiles were going to go off it made people panic. Yet, Kennedy took it upon himself to, to assured us that we needed to take precautionary measure. Kennedy could have said, don’t worry, or nothing at all. Instead, he let us in and let us knows what was up because this crisis involved us, the nation, that involves everybody. After a long wait, the crisis ended peacefully with a deal was made to make sure that Soviets agreed to get rid of their missile if the US, go rid of their own missiles in turkey (it is only fair). This is the agreement that ended the Cuban missile crisis and made our Nation, including the Soviets, and the Cubans relaxed. After this scare, a bunch of treaties was made and signed to reduce nuclear power. Leading us to create a great relation with China, after being a great ally to the Soviets
Even though the United States had a major goal of containing communism during the Cold War, the actions of U.S. president John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis differed greatly in practice from the principles of containment. By 1962 containment was not really working because the U.S. faced many problems with their foreign policy. Tensions ran high, especially with Cuba and the Soviet Union. Some issues were: the placement of U.S. missiles in Turkey, tension with communist Cuba, and discrepancies in the policy of containment (Beck). The U.S. had made an agreement with Turkey to place Jupiter missiles in Turkey, an allied country of the U.S. that shared a border with the Soviet Union.
... and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems." U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department of State, n.d. Web. 06 May 2014.
4. R. Handberg, Ballistic Missile Defense and the Future of American Security: Agendas, Perceptions. Technology, and Policy (Kindle: Praeger, 2001)1-264