Traditional state-to-state deterrence theory suggests that such a buildup would cost a lot economically while buying nothing of strategic value.
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But if deterrence theory is valid, then this double standard is invalid.
In fact, once these often repeated, seemingly immutable laws of deterrence theory are easily refuted, the logic for a robust missile defense system is stronger than ever.
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If deterrence theory is no longer valid, the U.S. had better work harder to achieve President Obama's Nobel Prize-winning goal of a world in which no nation possesses nuclear weapons.
The classic theory of deterrence presupposes a calculating evildoer who can evaluate the cost-benefits of proposed actions and will act and forbear from acting on the basis of these calculations.
The classic theory of deterrence contemplates the state absorbing the first harm, apprehending its perpetrator and then punishing him publicly and proportionally, so as to show potential future harm doers that it does not pay to commit the harm.
Today's votes suggest that allegiance to what President Bush has called 'an abstract theory of deterrence' will no longer blind this nation's leaders to emerging threats unanticipated and unaffected by the codification of that theory -- the ABM Treaty.
Even though it could retaliate against a hypothetical Iranian or North Korean nuclear attack and obliterate both nations while utilizing only 1 or 2% of its arsenal, the Obama administration is acting as if the theory of deterrence no longer applies.
Consequently, should war break out anytime soon, many thousands of Americans to say nothing of the citizenry of other, friendly Middle Eastern nations may be needlessly sacrificed on the alter of a bizarre theory of deterrence which holds that only the utter inability to defend oneself will prevent an attack.
Kennan, whose writings gave birth to the theory of nuclear deterrence, argued passionately but futilely against the development of the hydrogen bomb.
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