Deterrence and Diplomacy

This chapter considers the roles of, and the relationship between, deterrence and diplomacy, exploring these concepts in the context of power politics, threat perception and fear, and how these factors and the underlying political philosophies of liberalism and realism shape relevant policies and strategies. The challenge to deterrence through the impact of reputation shaped by perceptions of states’ success and failure in past conflicts, is used to identify the current crisis in deterrence capability. That crisis is aggravated by the changing nature of security threats and these are examined to establish the positive role that diplomacy can play in addressing them through a different way of thinking and approach. Deterrence of emerging challenges, including hybrid warfare, and the need to update nuclear deterrence thinking are also discussed from a diplomacy perspective.