Whereas missile defense clearly dominated the foreign policy debate during the nine first months of the Bush Administration, terrorism quickly became the new priority. Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to see this change as a major shift in Washington’s position towards missile defense. On the eve of a trustful and cooperative relationship with Russia, the United States have made the unilateral decision of withdrawing from the ABM Treaty, in order to develop freely their missile defense project. – Summary AFRI-2002