Which statement best summarizes two policy developments in President Bush's missile defense approach?

• A. The United States shut down its anti-ballistic missile site at Concrete, ND, and it began work on a new anti-satellite weapon.
• B. The United States withdrew from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty and eliminated the distinction between national missile defense (NMD) and theater missile defense (TMD), creating ballistic missile defense (BMD).
• C. The United States closed its missile test range in the Pacific Ocean, and it resumed atmospheric nuclear testing.
• D. The United States committed to supporting the European Space Agency's Galileo navigation satellite program development, and it declared all North Korean ballistic missile testing to be violations of international law.

Answer: (B)

The idea being tested is how Bush shifted missile defense from a treaty-bound, divided approach to a single, unified system. The two policy moves reflect that shift: first, withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which had constrained how the United States could defend against missiles; second, discarding the strict split between national missile defense (home defense) and theater missile defense (regional defense) to form a single Ballistic Missile Defense framework. This shows a move toward a more flexible, integrated defense architecture capable of addressing threats to both the homeland and allies.

In context, the ABM Treaty limited ballistic-missile defenses to specific sites and constrained overall deployment. By leaving the treaty and proposing a unified BMD concept, the administration aimed to pursue a broader set of defenses with common technologies and systems. The other options describe actions or positions that did not occur as part of Bush’s policy shifts.