The New European Missile Defense Architecture: Is There a Place for Ukraine?

U.S. President Barack Obama rejected his predecessor’s proposed ballistic missile defense system in Europe and substituted it with a localized theater system. This was generally understood to be a significant gesture in support of the “reset” between the United States and Russia. Moscow met this gesture, however, with continued opposition to any European missile defense system that did not include binding guarantees that the system would not threaten Russian strategic capabilities in the future. Lack of progress on this issue will presumably stimulate Russian efforts to enhance its defensive perimeter. This, in turn, will impact the national interests of Ukraine, which has an incentive to cooperate in European missile defense based on a mixture of geopolitical anxiety and technical interest. […]

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