Michelle Ciarrocca and William D. Hartung

About the author: Michelle Ciarrocca and William D. Hartung are scholars with the World Policy Institute at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

President George W. Bush has breathed new life into the grandiose missile defense designs of former president Ronald Reagan, whose dream of making the world safe from nuclear weapons through missile defense has not been realized despite years of research costing billions of dollars. Bush's proposals could spark a new global arms race and halt any progress on arms reductions talks. The costs of deploying a national missile defense system outweigh its benefits. The United States should instead seek security through diplomacy and by living up to treaty promises to reduce and eliminate its nuclear arsenals.

Some...