The Independent Working Group (IWG) on Post-ABM Trea­ty Missile Defense and the Space Relationship was formed in 2002 to:  

1. Examine the evolving threats to the United States, its overseas forces, allies, and coalition partners from the proliferation of ballistic missiles;
2. Examine missile defense requirements in the twenty-first century security setting;
3. Assess current missile defense programs in light of technological opportunities in the post-ABM Treaty world; and
4. Set forth general and specific recommendations for a robust, layered missile de­fense for the United States.

In pursuit of these objectives, the IWG has met several times a year, since 2001. These meetings have provided an opportunity not only to analyze issues directly related to missile defense, but also to identify a large number of additional topics for discussion. The IWG includes members with technical ex­pertise as well as participants familiar with the politics of missile defense. From these meetings draft materials have been produced, critiqued, revised, and refined for inclusion in two comprehensive reports and other related publications. Two major reports, both entitled Missile Defense, the Space Relationship & the Twenty-First Century, presented detailed analyses and general and specific recommendations and a third report provides our answers to a number of important questions about the constitution and role of effective missile defenses

• In 2007, (report linked) and
• In 2009 (report linked)
• Q and A’s – Key Issues (report linked)
• White Paper: Countering the EMP Threat (report linked)

In addition to the many plenary sessions, the IWG mem­bers organized panels for specific discussion of the sections of these reports, prepared by the participants, and to add new ideas, perspectives, and insights. Summaries of these panel discussions are included, together with the membership of each panel. The IWG reports have been intend­ed to be living documents, to be updated as necessary in or­der to provide a basis for informed consideration of missile defense needs. Much of the con­tent of these comprehensive reports has been reproduced in other formats in order to assure broader dissemination of the IWG’s work.

Each of the Sponsors, Independent Working Group, and Project Advisors contributed their own time and energy to this project. Organization and production costs were underwritten by a grant from The Carthage Foundation to the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis. The views expressed in these reports by IWG members are not necessarily those of the sponsoring organizations or of the project advisors.

Sponsors

American Foreign Policy Council

Claremont Institute

Department of Defense and Strategic Studies MO State University

Free Congress Research and Education Foundation

George C. Marshall Institute

The Heritage Foundation

High Frontier

Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis

Institute of The North

Independent Working Group Co-Chairmen

Dr. Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr. – Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of International Security Studies, The Fletcher School, Tufts University and President, Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis

Dr. William R. Van Cleave – Professor Emeritus, Department of Defense and Strategic Studies, Missouri State University

Members

Mr. Ilan Berman – Vice President for Policy, American Foreign Policy Council

Ambassador Henry F. Cooper – Chairman, High Frontier; former Director Strategic Defense Initiative Organization; former Chief U.S. Negotiator to the Geneva Defense and Space Talks

Dr. Jacquelyn K. Davis – Executive Vice President, Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis

Dr. Daniel I. Fine – Research Associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mr. William Forstchen – Author of One Second After (New York Times best selling novel about Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP))

Dr. Robert Jastrow † – Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors, George C. Marshall Institute; Founding Director, Goddard Institute for Space Studies, NASA; former Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Mount Wilson Institute

Mr. Thomas Karako – Director of Programs, The Claremont Institute

Mr. Brian Kennedy – President, The Claremont Institute

Mr. Jeff Kueter – President, George C. Marshall Institute

Mr. Eric Licht – President, Coalitions for America; Senior Policy Analyst, Free Congress Research and Education Foundation

Mr. Clifford May – President, Foundation of Democracies

Mr. R. Daniel McMichael – Independent Consultant and Defense/Security Analyst; Secretary, The Carthage Foundation; Secretary, The Sarah Scaife Foundation

Dr. Kiron Skinner – Research Fellow, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University

Mr. H. Baker Spring – F.M. Kirby Research Fellow in National Security Policy, The Heritage Foundation

Mr. Mead Treadwell – Senior Fellow, Institute of the North (Now Lt. Governor of Alaska)

Professor Robert F. Turner – Co-Founder and Associate Director, Center for National Security Law, University of Virginia Law School; Vice Admiral J.D. Williams, USN (Ret.); Williams Associates International, Inc.; former Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Naval Warfare and Commander U.S. Sixth Fleet

Dr. Gregory Canavan – Scientific Advisor, Physics Division Los Alamos National Laboratory

Mr. John H. Darrah – former Chief Scientist, U.S. Air Force Space Command

Dr. William R. Graham – Chairman and CEO, National Security Research, Inc.; former Science Advisor to the President

Dr. Jack Hammond – Senior Scientist, Lockheed Martin Corporation;Former Director of Kinetic Energy and Directed Energy Programs, Strategic Defense Initiative Organization

Dr. Charles M. Kupperman – Vce President of Washington Operations, Lockheed Space and Missile Sector; former Special Assistant to the President for Administration (Reagan Administration); former Executive Director of the General Advisory Committee on Arms Control