PRESIDENT Obama's decision to scrap plans for construction of a missile shield in Eastern Europe, on the surface, may seem to signal a major shift in US policy on missile defence. However, while the decision may have pleased Russia which had serious concerns over the plan to station these systems in the Czech Republic and Poland, it does not reflect the pre-election anti-missile defence Obama position. As on so many other counts, Obama's position on the whole gamut of nuclear proliferation and arms control and disarmament issues has shifted since he was sworn in as President of the US. So, while there will be no missile shield in Eastern Europe, there will be a smaller missile defence system constructed in the Mediterranean or in southeastern Europe. Ostensibly the argument is that this will effectively counter the threat of a missile attack from Iran. This not only assumes Iran is acquiring missiles to attack the US and its allies, it also assumes a permanently hostile posture towards Iran. Equally worrying is the fact that deploying the interceptor missiles on ships implies the systems can be moved and deployed easily from one theatre to another and this could also pose a future threat to Pakistan. Increasingly the language coming from Washington on missile defence, especially from US Defence Secretary Gates, is an echo of the neocon agenda of the Bush days - including the "rogue" state references that had been used to justify missile defence. Coming as this policy does in the wake of Iran's gesture of reaching out to the international community with offer of dialogue on the nuclear issue; it reveals an entrenched psychological hostility to Iran. Even more disturbing, this new US policy is more of an extension of the old Bush policy of undermining global arms control and disarmament (AC&D) by attempting to create discriminatory norms and procedures to the regime. This trend was reflected in the Indo-US nuclear deal and the follow-on in the Nuclear Suppliers' Group India-specific fuel supply waivers and the IAEA India-specific safeguards. Only recently, a group of retired Pakistani diplomats had written an open letter to Obama criticising this approach and pointing out that this would make it difficult for countries like Pakistan, which are the overt and covert targets of the discrimination, to go along with US initiatives in the area of nuclear AC&D. The discriminatory approach has been reflected in Obama's continuing support for the Bush Administration's untenable Fissile Material Cut off Treaty (FMCT) draft and in the latest US Resolution on nuclear proliferation and nuclear disarmament, to come before the UNSC on September 24. Obama, unfortunately, seems unable to shake off the negative Bush AC&D roadmap.