Disarmament, Deterrence, and Denial

Abstract

U.S. strategic policy contains a range of initiatives that address fundamentally different sources of conflict, impeding efforts to formulate a coherent national response to the proliferation of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. This analysis suggests that disarmament, deterrent and denial strategies address different sources of conflict, even though policy advocates often champion one strategy as the basis of U.S. defense policy. By identifying the underlying assumptions of policy advocates, the article illustrates that a one-size-fits-all approach to defense ignores the existence of different sources of global conflict. Theorists and defense officials must recognize the complexity of the contemporary security environment. This complexity suggests that we are experiencing an especially unstable moment in world politics, a time when competing security approaches compete for policy dominance.