Missile Defense in the Middle East: the Strategic Impact of Israeli Missile Defense on Us Security Interests in the Middle East

Ballistic Missile Defense deployments in the Middle East are taking up pace with Israel at the forefront. Israel has the most advanced and multi-faceted defense architecture in the region, with UAE, Oman and other Gulf states following suit. In all these cases the US is involved not only as a supplier, but also in cooperating on an integrated defense and surveillance system. This development has been quite neglected, as all the attention lies on Iran's advancing nuclear program, its impact on the NPT and the fear of a possible nuclear proliferation ?cascade?. But the fact that Iran ascribes great value to its missile program and might be affected by TMD systems suddenly shooting up like mushrooms in its neighborhood, is not viewed as a dynamic of ist own. ?Hitting a bullet with a bullet? has been a controversial strategy ever since the emergence of the first MD systems during the Cold War and were attributed a huge destabilizing potential. The key challenge is the critical role that Iran plays in the Middle East at the moment - not only because of its steadily advancing nuclear and missile programs, but also because of the different levers it uses to exert influence in the region.