Deterrence, Terrorism, and American Values
Abstract
This article explores the practical obstacles to applying deterrence to United States counterterrorism policy. Many commentators still discuss deterrence as a tool for U.S. policymakers to use to prevent future terrorist attacks on the U.S. homeland or its interests abroad. This paper argues that, while theoretically deterrence may be a viable approach to defending against terrorism, the actual policy choices that will be required of the U.S. to deter terrorism are morally and politically problematic. To effectively deter elements of a terrorist organization the U.S. would be forced to pursue policies that come into direct conflict with American core values. This paper aims to identify a number of the actual policy choices the U.S. must consider in order to deter the elements that comprise a terrorist organization and assess the compatibility of those choices with democratic values.
Description
This article appeared in Homeland Security Affairs (February 2007) v.3 no.1
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Military responses to state-sponsored terrorism : re-thinking deterrence and coercion theory
Bellon, Timothy E. (Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 1999-12);The face of conflict is changing. The breakup of the former Soviet Union has changed the balance of power from a bi-polar world to a uni-polar one. This change in the world's power structure has presented the United States ... -
Unconventional deterrence strategy
Rekasius, Mindaugas. (Monterey California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2005-06);This thesis examines a largely unexplored area of deterrence theory: unconventional deterrence. Unconventional deterrence is defined herein as "persuading the opponent not to attack, via threats of unconventional warfare, ... -
A Strategic Response to Terrorism A Framework for U.S. Policy; Strategic Insight: v.2, issue 2 (February 2003)
Smith, James M. (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2003-02);Deterrence by denial is the ultimate objective of the terrorism response framework. Although most counter-terror strategies begin with deterrence, their aim is to prevent an attack, not to deter the terrorist strategy. ...