Deterrence Studies: A field still in progress

Abstract

This article reviews three recent books covering a broad spectrum of deterrence research and uses them to argue for a properly constituted field of Deterrence Studies. Having declined after the Cold War, research slowly revived after 9/11, and then picked up rapidly in the last decade with the rise of great power competition. Having been consigned to the academic margins for decades, such is the centrality of deterrence in international affairs, and the continued growth of multi- and interdisciplinary research on the topic, that it deserves its own field, rather than indefinitely remaining as a subset of other fields.