UK Committee Slams NMD

The committee, comprising parliamentarians from Britain’s three major political parties, recommends that Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government encourage the United States “to seek other ways of reducing the threats [Washington] perceives” from ballistic missile proliferation. “We are not convinced that the U.S. plans to deploy NMD represent an appropriate response to the proliferation problems faced by the international community,” the committee found, and urged the British government to make clear “the very strong concerns that have been expressed about NMD within the [United Kingdom].” 

Dan Plesch, BASIC director, called the report “a powerful signal from Washington’s most-supportive ally that the United States is rushing down a dangerous path by focusing on defense against weapons of mass destruction, rather than on prevention – that is, nuclear disarmament.” 

The report, “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” reveals widespread worry among parliamentarians about the feasibility of NMD, and its potential consequences for international stability. “[W]e wish to emphasize strongly that our concern about U.S. plans for NMD does not stem from opposition to, or even indifference to, our closest ally's desire to protect itself: the question is whether the additional security that NMD might offer outweighs the negative impact of its deployment on strategic arms control.” 

The report covers a wide range of issues, including proliferation, major nuclear treaties, and the Chemical and Biological Weapons conventions. Importantly, NMD was the only issue area where the committee took a critical view of the Blair government’s current positions. 

British support is particularly crucial for the success of any U.S. NMD plan, as the Fylingdales early warning radar facility in Yorkshire is slated as a key component in the Pentagon’s deployment scheme. Up to now, Blair has been non-committal. The committee commended this approach, but urged “the government to impress upon the U.S. administration that it cannot necessarily assume unqualified U.K. cooperation with U.S. plans to deploy NMD in the event of unilateral U.S. abrogation” of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.

 Theresa Hitchens, BASIC research director, said the report “must serve as a warning to Washington that its NATO allies harbor grave reservations about NMD, and that their views cannot be discounted as President Bill Clinton ponders a deployment decision.”