Current and aspiring nuclear great powers (the United States, Russia, and China), together with other comparatively small nuclear weapons states (either declared or widely acknowledged as such), are ...

The same applies to the numerous cases in which false alarms have brought deterrence to the brink of failure, as for example in 1983 when Stanislav Petrov, a mid-ranking Soviet air defense officer, ...

Dr. Michael Wheeler, senior research staff, Institute for Defense Analyses, led the panel titled “Deterrence Concept Updates and Approaches” at the first workshop session. He began by describing what ...

The following speech was delivered by the Hon. Dr. Kevin Rudd to the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, on February 18, 2025. It is reproduced here in full. The Naval War College was ...

"The current questioning of nuclear deterrence implies something other than its withering away. There is no post-nuclear strategy. . . .[T]he nuclear instrument remains the central element in the ...

Poland and Lithuania confirm they are participating in discussions about their potential role in NATO’s nuclear deterrence ...

Does deterrence actually work? In our international relations class, my students researched the track record of deterrence in several cases of international aggression, as well as examples where ...

Every time a federal judge sentences a criminal defendant, the law requires the judge to consider the need for the sentence imposed to deter criminal conduct. Judges, in turn, often rely on this ...

Anytime a Secretary of Defense returns from Hawaii, one braces for tough talk and the “coming war with China.” Thankfully, Lloyd Austin took a different approach. Last week he gave a speech ...

Determining if biological attacks can be deterred requires a quick review of two topics: First, what are the basic tenets of deterrence, and second, how does this theory apply to biological threats?

President Trump’s recent strike on Iran provides a model for America’s future military engagement around the world—balancing strategic interests with industrial capacity and political will. On June ...