ABSTRACT
Suppose that the only likely way of warding off an enemy’s aggression is to threaten devastating nuclear retaliation which would kill many innocent people and rebound back on you. In short, we are supposing that if the threat is ineffective you will have much to lose and nothing to gain by carrying it out. Then there is a problem for those who think this can be justified, if it is clear that attempting to bluff the enemy will be ineffective, as it probably would be in a democracy: you must genuinely intend to retaliate if you are to have any chance of deterring them. You will not want to retaliate if the enemy attacks, because that will have horrendous consequences both for the innocent and for yourself; but you nevertheless want to deter an enemy likely to attack you.
