Quentin Peel

From Berlin to Great Wall?

Dr. Henry Kissinger heads a richly distinguished cast of foreign policy contributors to the last in the current series of Analysis.

In the programme, presenter Quentin Peel asks: is the United States about to substitute a new giant enemy for an old one? The Bush administration has significantly speeded up testing on ballistic missile defence (BMD), while assuring Russia - and America's allies - that it aims to deal with the threat to security posed by such "rogue" states as Iraq, North Korea and Iran.

We're looking at a limited defence. And we think it's feasible, we think it's affordable and it's our technology and our money, thank you very much. And if our European allies don't like it, that's just too bad.

Richard Perle Former Assistant Secretary for Defence & Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

But the credibility of that threat - and the appropriateness of BMD to meet it - is in question, while China claims Washington wants to be able to overwhelm Beijing's nuclear arsenal with its new system.

Together with Dr. Kissinger, General Brent Scowcroft (National Security Adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush), Sandy Berger (President Clinton's National Security Adviser), Richard Perle (a senior and controversial Pentagon official under President Reagan with ties to the new Bush administration) and other experts, Quentin Peel examines what the US sees as the new threats and what the implications are for such traditional allies as Britain.

Producer: Simon Coates