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In contrast to the ambitious Strategic Defence
Initiative of the 1980s, the current US program to build
ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska and California is a
feasible and prudent response to the growing threat of missile
and nuclear developments in North Korea and Iran. The United
States is both able and by law committed to go-it-alone on
missile defence. All the risks and nearly all the costs to build
missile defences are borne by the Americans. Several countries
including Japan, Denmark, and the United Kingdom have agreed to
provide radar or information components to the program under
these conditions. The main benefit Canada will derive from
joining is the ability to have a voice in how North America will
be protected against the missile threat. As one of Canada's
premier experts on missile defence, Dr. James Fergusson, put it,
not to participate "will relegate Canada to an uninformed
observer of US strategic direction" (Fergusson,
2004).
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