Byers, Chelsea R.2008-09-172008-09-172006-06https://hdl.handle.net/1794/730767 p. A THESIS Presented to the Department of Political Science and the Honors College of the University of Oregon, in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries under the call number: SCA Archiv Byers 2006Congress and the executive support the continued development of ballistic missile defense systems. Since the Bush administration came into office in 2001, the United States has pulled out ofthe Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty and revamped research and development funding for this defense initiative, asking as much as 9 billion dollars per year. This thesis analyzes the strategic problems associated with the implementation ofthese systems and moving the United States from a deterrence-based nuclear posture to a defense-based one. It concludes with a statistical analysis of factors in each US Senator's background that might have influenced the probability of their voting against constraining the program in June 2004 using probit regression methodology.27648 bytes1026931 bytesapplication/mswordapplication/pdfen-USThesis