September 17, 2009
Obama switches course on European missile defense

When U.S. President Barack Obama took office, he inherited a controversial plan from George W. Bush for a missile defense system in Europe, to be based in the Czech Republic and Poland. The idea was to counter a perceived threat to Europe posed by long-range missiles from Iran.

On Thursday, Obama announced that he is dropping that plan for eastern Europe. Instead, he said, the U.S. will develop an alternative plan to counter what is now perceived as the more immediate threat of short- and medium-range missiles from Iran.

Heather Conley, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former assistant secretary of state, joins Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss the motivations behind Obama’s decision and how it will be received in Europe.

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4 comments

#4

09/18/2009 :: 03:52:15 PM
Week in review: War crimes in Gaza and missile defense | Worldfocus Says:

[...] in Review: Hillary Clinton, al-Qaeda and IranWeek in review: Economic crisis, Iran, Iraq, al-QaedaObama switches course on European missile defenseHolocaust kept out of Gaza school curriculumWeek in review: Israel, China and turbulence in [...]

#3

09/18/2009 :: 08:29:17 AM
The Melancholy Poet Says:

Diplomacy this may be…
but what is the True Nature
of its Incipient Effect?
And what will be the True Effect
of its Ongoing Manifestations
to those who Perceive such Things
from many Varying Viewpoints
far different from those
which we…
Entertain?

#2

09/18/2009 :: 02:33:32 AM
annjell Says:

I am just glad that we now have a president who believes is decent diplomacy.

#1

09/18/2009 :: 12:10:57 AM
Lou Thomas Says:

This is a welcome step back from the brinksmanship of the Bush Administration. Your report on the development mentioned that these defense systems were an “irritant” in the US/Russian bilateral relationship, but did not in any way explore the nature of that irritation. A single glance at a map should be enough to reveal that these systems were not aimed at Iran, but at Russia, and the Russian attitude toward them confirms that. I appreciate that you at least mentioned the impact of this very important action on lessening tensions with Russia, but feel that you did not explore the reasons for those tensions sufficiently in this report.

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