Missile defenses are relatively new yet highly controversial. In this section you can explore the history of missile defense programs of various nations around the world.

• President Reagan Announces the Strategic Defense Initiative
• Ronald Reagan on the Strategic Defense Initiative
• Statement of Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Hearing on Ballistic Missile Defense Technology
• Statement of Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Hearing on ABM Treaty, May 5, 1999
• President George W. Bush Announces Initial Missile Defense Deployment for 2004, December 17, 2004
• Transcript: President Bush Speech on Missile Defense, May 1, 2001
• Democrats Respond to Bush Speech on Missile Defense, May 2, 2001
• Excerpt from Remarks by President Clinton on National Missile Defense, September 1, 2000
• Joint Statement of the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of the Russian Federation on Cooperation in the Sphere of Strategic Stability, December 2000
• Joint Statement of the Presidents of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation on Anti-Missile Defense, July 18, 2000
• Statement of the Honorable Henry A. Kissinger before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, May 26, 1999
• Memorandum of Law: Did the ABM Treaty of 1972 Remain in Force after the USSR ceased to Exist in December 1991and did it Become a Treaty Between the United States and the Russian Federation? by Douglas J. Feith and George Miron, January 22, 1999 (Revised May 21, 1999)
• Opposing the National Missile Defense Act, March 16, 1999
• Statement of Russian President Putin on Strategic Reductions and Preservation of the ABM Treaty, November 13, 2000
• Regional Perspectives Opposing Missile Defense
• Resolution on National Missile Defense and Theater Missile Defense of the USA, November 13, 2000
• Statement of David B. Rivkin, Jr. and Lee A. Casey on the Legal Status of the AMB Treaty before the Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate
• Conclusions of the Report of the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States (The Rumsfeld Commission), July 15, 1998
• 2000 United States Department of Defense Strategy Report for Europe and NATO Excerpt on Ballistic Missile Defenses, December 1, 2000
• Time to Abandon 30-Year Old "Mutual Assured Destruction" Pact with Soviet Union, November 10, 1999