The purpose of this research is to study the effects that Russian, U.S., and NATO policies of deterrence have on strategic missile defense as well as how these policies and strategic missile defense affect future weapons proliferation. The aspects explored are the current Russian strategic forces and quality, Russian policies and strategies, the Phased Adaptive Approach, and U.S. and NATO policies and strategies. Mitigation of this pressing issue may be through open dialogue, a system to limit future U.S. and NATO interceptors and sensors, and a possible joint data exchange center.

The aim of the diploma thesis is to identify Russia's Foreign Policy change in the first decade of the 21st century. It focuses on the three most important strategic documents of the Russian Federation, the presidential decrees signed by Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev (The Foreign Policy Concepts of the Russian Federation from 2000 and 2008, The National Security Concept of the Russian Federation from 2000, The National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation from 2009 and The Military Doctrines from 2000 and 2010). Through Discourse analysis it concludes that Russia has moved to strenghtening norms of international law and multilateral cooperation between the years 2000 and 2010, it no longer uses confrontational expressions and prefers a multi-vector foreign policy accenting the Asian vector. Russia also proves to be more self-confident and ambitious. We expect a more active role in the world affairs from Russia in the second decade of the 21st century.