FORTY YEARS AFTER PRESIDENT REAGAN UNVEILED SDI (Hudson Inst), Mar 20, 2023, virtual, 10:00-11:00 am ET

The Hudson Institute will hold a webinar on March 20, 2023 from 10:00-11:00 am ET to discuss “Forty Years After President Ronald Reagan Unveiled the Strategic Defense Initiative.”

SDI was Reagan’s plan to build a space-based missile defense system, dubbed Star Wars at the time (after the movie series).

More information is on the event’s website, which says:

Forty years ago, on March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan addressed the American people to unveil “a vision of the future which offers hope,” namely, a program to counter the Soviet missile threat through defensive measures. Thus, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), the missile defense system that ultimately helped the United States prevail over the Soviet Union, was born. SDI was born from Reagan’s disdain for mutual assured destruction, and to instead encourage advances in defenses.

Hudson Senior Fellow and Keystone Defense Initiative Director Rebeccah Heinrichs is joined by Will Inboden to discuss his new book, The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink. They will also reflect on President Reagan’s visionary leadership for SDI as well as lessons for today’s major powers rivalry with the Chinese Communist Party.