International Relations
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Abstract
In a strategic age characterised by the doctrine of pre-emption, one could be forgiven for assuming that deterrence, the staple of cold-war strategy, was past its prime. Not so, argues Lawrence Freedman in this compelling primer on the contemporary utility of deterrence. Freedman argues that the steady and institutionalised patterns of deterrence experienced during the cold war were the exception, not the rule. The challenge now is to re-learn deterrence. Freedman suggests what he describes as a ‘normsbased approach’ that ‘requires reinforcing certain values to the point where it is well understood that they must not be violated’ (p. 4). The attraction of this approach, he argues, is that it reflects more accurately how deterrence actually works in practice, where costs are attached to particular courses of action.