SDI: The Force Awakens

My latest at the National Interest takes a look at the legacy of the Strategic Defense Initiative:

The Strategic Defense Initiative, or “Star Wars,” is over thirty years old. SDI has never, despite the intentions of several presidents, provided the United States with an effective, reliable defense against the ballistic missiles of an opponent of the scale of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, the inauguration of the SDI project marks a crucial inflection point in the history of missile defense in the United States.

But appreciating the break that Star Wars represented requires an understanding of what went before. Ronald Reagan didn’t start the national conversation on missile defense, but he did revive it, and that revival has set the terms for the debate ever since.

Some other links:

• Audience costs and the Vietnam War. There’s a lot here, especially to those with an interest in Kennedoy’s role in the war.
• The short GOP foreign policy bench. I wonder whether these problems will be exacerbated by the shift in the last two years of the Bush administration.
• The graphics associated with this retelling of the SMS Emden-HMAS Sydney battle are simply amazing.
• I speculate liberally on China’s J-31 stealth fighter…