Seeking a Strategy to Counter Weapons of Mass Destruction
Back to the basics of deterrence, diplomacy, and defense to address potential nation-state employment of unconventional weapons?
Back to the basics of deterrence, diplomacy, and defense to address potential nation-state employment of unconventional weapons?
Ronen Bergman writes a must read article for this weekend's New York Times Magazine.
In calculating Israel's options with regard to the Iranian nuclear threat, Defense Minister Ehud Barak cited three broad questions:
1. Does Israel have the ability to cause severe damage to Iran’s nuclear sites and bring about a major delay in the Iranian nuclear project? And can the military and the Israeli people withstand the inevitable counterattack?
2. Does Israel have overt or tacit support, particularly from America, for carrying out an attack?
3. Have all other possibilities for the containment of Iran’s nuclear threat been exhausted, bringing Israel to the point of last resort? If so, is this the last opportunity for an attack?
For the first time since the Iranian nuclear threat emerged in the mid-1990s, at least some of Israel’s most powerful leaders believe that the response to all of these questions is yes.
Read the whole article here.