"It's no accident at all that the current administration is not only a reflection of the Reagan-Bush era, but actually almost an intensification of it," states Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll. Defence policy advisor Richard Perle was Assistant Secretary of Defence under Reagan, Rumsfeld performed the same function for Ford while policies like the Star Wars project have their roots back in the sixties.

The world's future may rest on a granite mountain in the spectacular Colorado Desert. Deep inside this mountain lies a bunker fortified against nuclear attack. It's the war room of America's planned missile defence system - a new order which will make the world a safer or a more dangerous place, depending on whom you believe. "It's very hard to believe that over the long term we will not see the emergence of countries with ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction on top of those missiles," states policy advisor Richard Perle. He believes the system is vital to safeguarding America's security.

And it's not only rogue states that America hopes to defend itself from. "For many people, the whole point of missile defence is China," states Joseph Cirincione from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's the fear that sometime in the next 20 or 30 years the United States is going to have a confrontation with China. It has to have a shield in place ready to face down those missiles, otherwise the fear is the US will back down and begin a slow but steady global retreat and the American century will come to an end."

But will the system actually work or will it end up endangering world stability? Physicists like Theodore Postol question the feasibility of interception in space and claim that tests have been deliberately dumbed down to produce positive results. "They literally rigged the entire flight test programme," he complains, warning that the shield "could lead to a military disaster." He was so concerned that he wrote to the President to warn him.

And many people have trouble understanding why America is so keen to overturn the Antimissile Ballistic Treaty which had kept the peace for half a century in favour of a costly system that is not only unproven but may make the world more dangerous. After all, as China's Director General of arms control Sha Zu Kang states "If they insist in their shield, I'm sure that others will take necessary countermeasures."

Strong journalism and impressive visual footage make this a cutting edge documentary

Produced by ABC Australia