Tailored Deterrence Building a Framework for Extended Deterrence Developing Threat Regions

Abstract

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the 2016 United States (U.S.)election season elevated the Iran nuclear threat to common household discussion. As the number of nuclear-armed states and regions increase, the U.S. must find a flexible and tailorable framework for entering extended deterrence agreements. NATO and the Western Pacific region offer two independent models to review and reference; however, neither represents the dilemma currently facing the U.S. regarding the Middle East. Absent U.S. intervention, Iran will likely become a nuclear-armed state (at some point) and several other Middle Eastern states will likely attempt to follow suit. The new presidential administration must consider tailored options for future security agreements and the role of conventional versus nuclear deterrence, in addition to the moral dilemma of prioritizing representative governments versus nuclear non-proliferation. To this point, the U.S. has only extended the nuclear umbrella to NATO, Japan, South Korea, and Australia all strong, stable, liberal democracies.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 17, 2017
Accession Number
AD1054976

Entities

People

  • Robert M. Knapp

Organizations

  • Air Command and Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Air Force
  • Department Of State
  • Governments
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Middle East
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Nato
  • North Korea
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Security
  • Treaties
  • United States
  • War Colleges

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Nuclear Non-Proliferation and International Security
  • Strategic Security Studies