Volume 12 Issue 4 - Winter 2018

Conventional Deterrence: An Interview with John J. Mearsheimer

A large-scale conventional war between two nuclear-armed states, is still a real possibility.  We need to think more about conventional deterrence between China and the United States. 

Clausewitz as Counterpuncher: The Logic of Conventional Deterrence

Stephen D. Chiabotti 
Is it best to take your opponent’s best shot and then counter with what you have left? 

Deterrence in the 21st Century: Integrating Nuclear and Conventional Force

Robert Peters
Justin Anderson
Harrison Menke 

Should the United States reintegrate its nuclear forces into a broad range of conventional strategies and operations aimed at deterring adversaries? 

Expectations of Cyber Deterrence

Martin C. Libicki 
Does the existence of cyber capabilities, coupled with the threat they might be used as punishment, help deter others? 

How Does Nuclear Deterrence Differ from Conventional Deterrence?

James J. Wirtz 
Does contestability of conventional threats raise doubts in the minds of adversaries about the probability deterrent threats will succeed? 

Conventional Deterrence Redux: Avoiding Great Power Conflict in the 21st Century

Karl P. Mueller 
Can conventional deterrence make the costs of a potential Russian invasion of the Baltic States appear prohibitively high? 

The Future of Conventional Deterrence: Strategies for Great Power Competition

Robert P. Haffa, Jr.
Distinct strategic implications exist for the future of conventional deterrence to meet the challenges of great power competition. 

Does Grand Strategy Matter?

Alexander Kirss 
Do academics and policy elites place too much stock in grand strategy as a cure-all for American foreign policy woes?   

Just War Reconsidered

By: James M. Dubik 
Reviewed by:  Doyle Hodges 
James Dubik’s Just War Reconsidered uses just war theory as a lens to examine the political and moral responsibility of military officers and policy makers at the strategic and operational level of war. Dubik’s central claim is that just war theory is incomplete. Traditional just war theory distinguishes the decision to go to war (jus ad bellum), which is the province of policy makers, from how a war is fought (jus in bello), which is the responsibility of the military. Dubik introduces a new level of analysis to jus in bello: how a war is waged. Fighting justly involves choosing weapons and targets to achieve war aims while minimizing the effect on those not engaged in harm.

The New Russia

By: Mikhail Gorbachev
Reviewed by:  Maj J. Alexander Ippoliti, ANG 
To mark the 30th anniversary of the commencement of perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev wrote The New Russia (published in Russian as После Кремля/Posle Kremlya, translated After the Kremlin), an introspective look at the Russian state based on his own experiences. He examined how Russia has evolved from the Soviet Union to the modern “managed democracy,” controlled by the Putin regime. New Russia offers Western readers a viewpoint at once sympathetic to, yet independent of, the liberal democratic narrative which generally informs American thinkers. New Russia does not offer particularly fresh insights but does provide Western readers the opportunity to glimpse a divide between the Putin regime and the elements of the Russian population that is often lost from outside Russia’s borders.