Between War and Peace: Deterrence and Leverage
نویسنده
چکیده
Responding to the security needs of the United States at the edge of the twenty-first century reveals a myriad of new threats and challenges, many of which remain largely unappreciated by both policy makers and the public at large. As if the horrors of an impending nuclear war were not enough, we now face a new challenge to our national security--the indiscriminate use of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) by terrorists.1 Because of the many complex policy considerations, the U.S. has yet to complete a strategic evaluation of this threat, which would identify actors, their capabilities and intentions, as well as preventative measures, crisis and consequence management, and response options. The overall framework for examining WMD terrorism continues to be viewed through the intellectual prism of Cold War strategic doctrine--mutually understood deterrence and rationality. Today's threat dynamics center around decidedly irrational actors--particularly rogue states and hostile non-state groups, who for reasons of ethnic, nationalist, tribal, economic, or religious hatred bear enmity toward the U.S. These patterns of hatred result in novel forms of conflict. Blended with the increasing availability of technology and knowledge relating to weapons of mass destruction and mass disruption,2 a grave new challenge to U.S. security has emerged.
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