Briefing - Missile Defense and the Offense-Defense Relationship

On October 27, 2021, the Deep Cuts Project held a briefing to launch the new Deep Cuts Working Paper on “Missile Defense and the Offense-Defense Relationship”.

Missile defenses remain an obstacle to U.S.-Russia agreement on a new nuclear arms control accord. Both sides will need to address the offense-defense relationship in the Strategic Stability Dialogue, agreed by President Joseph Biden and Vladimir Putin at their June 2021 Geneva summit.

What could such measures look like? How can Russia and the United States avoid new arms races? At what point should China be brought into discussions on the offensive-defense relationship? How would a possible Russia-U.S. agreement affect NATO missile defenses? What role can Europeans play in managing offense-defense relationships?

Two distinguished members of the Deep Cuts Commission, namely Steven Pifer and Andrey Bakltiskiy, as well as guest author James Cameron from the University of Oslo discussed how missile defenses affect strategic stability and offer practical suggestions to limit the uncertainty over future missile defense capabilities. The briefing was moderated by Maren Vieluf, Researcher at the IFSH Berlin office.