2010/07/21 by Nikolai Sokov · 1 citation
Engineering · Social Sciences · #Business #Computer science #Economic policy #Engineering #International trade #Joint (building) #Law #Middle East #Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts #Military science #Missile #Missile defense #Nuclear Issues and Defense #Nuclear weapon #Political science #Russian federation #Scope (computer science) #Security, Politics, and Digital Transformation #State (computer science) #Strategic defence
paper · doi:10.1080/00396338.2010.506825
openalex publication_date 2010/07/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The combination of impressive and gradually growing missile capabilities with a suspected nuclear-weapons programme makes Iran a serious concern for the Middle East and beyond. Increasingly, these worries appear to be shared by Russia. While the Russian military continues to state that acquisition by Tehran of a strategic capability is still distant, and thus continues to oppose American proposals to create defences against it, Russian participation in a defence system intended to protect Europe and other regions is once again high on the US–Russian and NATO–Russian agendas. Moscow has indicated that it might be prepared to accept and, under the right conditions, even join an ‘anti-Iranian’ common missile-defence system. But while there appear to be no impediments to Moscow agreeing to participate in a system that would protect Europe, or even the Middle East and the Gulf, involvement in a larger-scale system capable of intercepting strategic missiles is hardly possible. At least in the near term, it would be necessary to consciously limit the scope and capability of any joint system.