Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year came as no surprise to the West. But the Kremlin’s recent ability to escalate without pushback is surprising. Last month Russian jet fighters in Syria harassed U ...

In the days of radio, when a batter crushed a basebal that was headed for a home run, the famous sports announcer Mel Allen described the ball’s trajectory as “going, going, gone.” The same descriptor ...

Chinese military vehicles carrying DF-41 ballistic missiles roll during a parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China in Beijing, Oct. 1, 2019. Credit: AP Photo/Mark ...

The current war with Iran was barely a few days old when pundits and scholars began compiling lists of its alleged failures. Many critics rushed to judgment without first defining their theory of ...

Concerns about crime have been the foundation for decades of get-tough policies aimed at deterring crime. The belief is that ever-greater punishment — by hiring more police, increasing prosecution, ...

From 3–7 March 2025, members of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) have gathered for their third meeting since the agreement became law in 2021. About half the world’s countries ...

Regarding Sorin Adam Matei’s “The Ukraine War Calls for a Revival of Deterrence Theory” (op-ed, Aug. 23): Classical deterrence theory had a simple unifying goal: Defend democracy from communist ...

Nuclear weapon test Bravo (yield 15 Mt) on Bikini Atoll, Mar. 1, 1954. Credit: U.S. Department of Energy Subscribe for ads-free reading The beginning of the nuclear age in 1945 generated two ...

Deterrence polemics have all but disappeared from most newspapers and television, and with each new theme for our national security strategy, we are reading, seeing, and hearing less about deterrence.