ABSTRACT
In an essay on deterrence one should probably distinguish right from the outset between, on the one hand, punitive deterrence, that is, the deterrence through denial, that is, through having war-fighting capabilities sufficient so that an attacker can be denied a high probability of achieving his objective(s). Either might, in principle, be accomplished with either nuclear or non-nuclear arms. In the remainder of this article I shall be concerned mainly with punitive deterrence based on nuclear capabilities, and unless otherwise qualified, this will be what I have in mind when I use the term ‘deterrence’ without qualification.
