ABSTRACT

A fundamental purpose of this volume is to apply deterrence theory to the domestic context. In pursuing this issue, Saideman and Zahar highlight the central role of the state in producing security. Correspondingly, the editors’ operating questions for this volume ask scholars to identify the conditions when the state can deter violence and when the state can assure its citizens that the state itself is not a threat. But it is not just the state at issue here. Rather, it is the state and its ability to project force, an ability usually tied to the military. In multiethnic states, domestic deterrence issues often involve three types of actors: the state (the government and bureaucracy), the military, and the politically salient ethnic groups. The way these actors align critically affects deterrence and assurance.