This book is not a prediction but an urgent warning. It is about the state of global politics today, about what may happen by the onset of the twenty-first century, and also about what must not be allowed to happen. My concern that global change is out of control involves a necessarily subjective interpretation of the political meaning and message of our time.
The major policy debate touched off by President Reagan's March 1983 speech announcing the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was the reopening of one that had begun 35 years before. Then and now the ultimate question is what kind of strategic posture is most likely to contribute to mutual strategic stability? The answer is central to national survival and has profound ethical implications. A s…