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Theses/Dissertations

MSU Graduate Theses

Deterrence

Political Science

Publication Year

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Us Strategic Culture, Homeland Ballistic Missile Defense, And Mutual Vulnerability, Jacob T. Blank Jan 2022

Us Strategic Culture, Homeland Ballistic Missile Defense, And Mutual Vulnerability, Jacob T. Blank

MSU Graduate Theses

Strategic scholars have long understood the indispensable linkage between culture and security policymaking. By shaping the perceptions through which decision-makers formulate security policy, strategic culture analysis adds vital context to the perilously difficult science of understanding and predicting state security outputs. One area where this analytical framework fails to generate the expected result is American missile defense policy. Salient themes of US strategic culture, including an optimistic and problem-solving mindset, positive role of machines, and ahistorical exceptionalism, are reflected in the American way of war – a technologically driven, leadership casualty averse, moralistic, apolitical, and firepower focused enterprise. These factors …


How Competition Undermines Deterrence, Kayse Jansen Aug 2021

How Competition Undermines Deterrence, Kayse Jansen

MSU Graduate Theses

The re-emergence of great power competition has brought with it a U.S. government-wide initiative to reclaim and strengthen advantage and influence across all elements of national power. Competition is considered necessary to secure American interests and protect the existing liberal international order, as well as uphold deterrence by enhancing the nation’s ability to impose costs and deny benefits. This view, however, neglects a critical factor in deterrence: the cost of restraint, which reflects the acceptability of the status quo. Paradoxically, the more successful the nation is at “competition,” the less likely it may be in important deterrence situations. Successful diplomatic …


Utilizing Strategic Culture As A Tool To Tailor U.S. Deterrence Policy Towards Iran, Ryan P. Taylor May 2019

Utilizing Strategic Culture As A Tool To Tailor U.S. Deterrence Policy Towards Iran, Ryan P. Taylor

MSU Graduate Theses

The geostrategic environment since the end of the Cold War has drastically changed the way United States (U.S.) policymakers develop strategies to combat a wide range of hostile threats facing the country, especially in the field of the deterrence of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Iran is such an actor, who poses one of the greater proliferation threats in the world and continues to commit hostile actions in the Middle East. In this post-Cold War environment, it is imperative that the United States develop a tailored deterrence strategy to meet this challenge. Past deterrence strategies popular during the bipolar era …