Word: abm
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...move full speed on a defense system that runs afoul of the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which limits testing and deployment of new defensive systems. Critics say the rapid-fire tests that could bust the treaty are designed to do so; for some Bush advisers, getting rid of ABM is an end in itself...
...Putin. Russia, like China--with whom Putin last week signed a treaty of "friendship forever" that aligns them politically against missile defense--charges that the U.S. shield will wreck nuclear stability and spark a new arms race. More practically, Russia is the other party to the ABM treaty. The tests the Pentagon has in mind will violate its terms "within months, not years," says a freshly circulated State Department memo. Officials talk of deployment as early as 2004. That schedule turns the screws on Putin to modify the treaty to suit Washington right away--or the U.S. will simply pull...
...Russian leader has been saying no, no, no. He probably cares less about the sanctity of the ABM treaty than the harm its demise might do to Russia's standing in the world and his image at home. Analysts in most capitals, including Moscow, think he's bargaining for everything he can get before he says O.K. He needs the veneer of equal dialogue, and the sweeteners could be costly--no NATO expansion; keeping quiet as Russia continues economic ties to Iraq and Iran...
Meanwhile, Putin continues to mix his signals. He has laid out a modest framework for "modernizing" ABM, and ladled on some soft soap before setting off for Genoa last week, calling Dubya "a little bit sentimental." But Putin has also demonstrated why he won't be easy to roll. Besides inking the treaty with China, he has repeatedly warned that Russia will cram more warheads atop its missiles if Bush abandons the ABM treaty...
...lock in missile defense before Bush's first term ends. In fact, the President can just bulldoze ahead. Russia can cooperate and get something or sulk and get nothing. European objections don't count if Russia concedes. The Democrat-led Senate can't stop Bush from breaking the ABM treaty, though it can tighten the purse strings...