Reconceptualizing Deterrence: Nudging Toward Rationality in Middle Eastern Rivalries

This book offers a reconceptualisation of conventional deterrence theory, and applies it to enduring rivalries in the Middle East.

The work argues that many of the problems encountered in the development of deterrence theory lay in the fact that it was developed during the Cold War, when the immediate problem it had to address was how to prevent catastrophic nuclear wars. The logic of nuclear deterrence compelled a preoccupation with the problem of stability over credibility; however, becau...