Deterrence



Deterrence

Introduction

Deterrence is a concept that has developed in strategic military thinking since the 1930s, following the emergence of long-range weapons of mass destruction. It is based on the threat of effective military or economic counter-action as a means of discouraging acts of aggression. Conventional deterrence covers in the various forms using conventional weapons. Here, conventional weapons are deemed to be those that exclude weapons of mass destruction that is, not nuclear, chemical, biological, or radiological weapons.

Harvey generates a breakthrough in the existing programme of research by focusing in great depth on the logic of necessary and sufficient conditions for deterrence. He describes precisely the hypothesis of necessary conditions that is cited, tested, and rejected most frequently by critics of deterrence theory. He also identifies a range of auxiliary hypotheses that have been tested and found wanting. When carefully restated propositions are evaluated, with the cases that are most relevant in terms of the presence or absence of presumably key conditions, rational deterrence theory is seen in a much more positive light. The study concludes by urging a more nuanced approach to measuring the key ingredients of deterrence and combining them into more comprehensive models (Lester, 2008).

Discussion

Jervis draws attention to the potential for psychological factors to stand in the way of deterrence. Deterrence may be planned and implemented, but what if actions are misperceived? The role of communication is crucial and cannot simply be assumed away. In other words, deterrence may fail because of subjective factors that are at least somewhat beyond the control of participants in a conflict. What seems like a clear threat with serious consequences may be perceived very differently by the intended recipient of the message, depending on how the latter is transmitted. The study by Jervis is important for moving the analysis of deterrence toward incorporation of psychological factors.

Another researcher focuses on how foreign policy is made in times of crisis, and he makes an important contribution in terms of identifying feasible conditions for deterrence to work. Research on decision making in a series of crises indicates that the role of stress in impairing decision making may have been overrated in some previous studies. This suggests that deterrence has the potential to work in a wide range of circumstances without being impaired by stress-induced misperceptions (Andrew, 2011).

Those objections, particularly the possibility of unwanted side effects, are directed against the use of corporal punishment in schools. Even more than the impositions of corporal punishment, say opponents, beating the pride strikes adolescents and may even strengthen their unbelief. In addition, the impact of the child pointer or a ruler on the buttocks does not solve anything. Faced with these protests, twenty U.S. states have banned corporal punishment in schools, nine of these prohibitions of the law in force in the period from 1987 to mid 1990. Opponents of this practice in Europe are even more uniform. With regard to this matter, no European nation, except Great Britain, does not allow its teachers to physically punish students for ...