Deterrence

Considering Post-War Ukraine

Putin has failed to meet his objectives, but Ukraine has a difficult rebuilding process ahead, even with expected international support.

The West Should Remember Cold War-Just War Lessons of Nuclear Deterrence
The West Should Remember Cold War-Just War Lessons of Nuclear Deterrence

In our day it is difficult for some, perhaps many, to recall that the West’s Cold War policy of nuclear deterrence—anchored in traditional just war moral principles of just cause, right intention, proportionality, and discrimination—helped avert war rather than increase the prospects of nuclear conflagration.

A Just War-Cold War Response to Nuclear Blackmail
A Just War-Cold War Response to Nuclear Blackmail

Either we deter Russian aggression, which means that we convince Putin that we will not tolerate his first-strike nuclear threats and be intimidated, or we passively acquiesce to nuclear blackmail and Russian butchery of a nation that was promised its integrity and sovereignty five years after the Cold War ended.

A Cold War–Just War Response to Nuclear Threats
A Cold War–Just War Response to Nuclear Threats

Vladimir Putin’s recent announcement to place his nation’s nuclear deterrent forces on a state of heightened alert invites those of us in the free world—and surely the United States—to revisit the just war assumptions that served as a deterrence during the Cold War.

NATO Is Still Key to Keeping the Peace in Europe - Russia Ukraine
NATO Is Still Key to Keeping the Peace in Europe

With Ukraine languishing outside the safety of the NATO alliance, the consensus seems to be that there is little the alliance can do as Putin enforces his latter-day Brezhnev Doctrine. That consensus view is wrong.

A Christian Approach to International Issues in 1946
A Christian Approach to International Issues in 1946

After a tumultuous start to the post-World War II era and before the Cold War fully commenced, the board of supervisors of Christianity and Crisis issued a joint statement in December 1946 that tried to explain a Christian approach to international issues.

On Taiwan: Goal Clarity, Strategic Tacitness, and Tactical Ambiguity
On Taiwan: Goal Clarity, Strategic Tacitness, and Tactical Ambiguity

“Strategic ambiguity” does not accurately describe the US policy on Taiwan that has been executed by successive Republican and Democratic administrations over the past 40-some years. A better description would be “strategic tacitness.”

The Importance of Defense and Deterrence - Military Spending Joe Biden fiscal year 2022
The Importance of Defense and Deterrence: A Look at the Defense Spending Bill

The Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month unveiled plans for a $740-billion defense-spending bill for fiscal year 2022. That’s nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars—in long form: $740,000,000,000. That looks like a lot of money. But looks can be deceiving.

What Christians Must Remember about Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control
What Christians Must Remember about Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control

Three decades after the Cold War’s end, do we still need a nuclear arsenal today? Edward Ifft thinks not and in Christianity Today urges his fellow Christians to believe likewise. Peter Feaver, William Inboden, and Michael Singh disagree.