Crossword clues for deterrence
deterrence
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Deterrence \De*ter"rence\, n. That which deters; a deterrent; a hindrance. [R.]
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1861; see deterrent + -ence.
Wiktionary
n. 1 The act of deterring, or the state of being deterred 2 Action taken by states or alliances of nations against equally powerful alliances to prevent hostile action 3 The art of producing in one's enemy the fear to attack
WordNet
n. a negative motivational influence [syn: disincentive] [ant: incentive]
a communication that makes you afraid to try something [syn: determent, intimidation]
the act or process of discouraging actions or preventing occurrences by instilling fear or doubt or anxiety
Wikipedia
Deterrence may refer to:
- Deterrence theory, a theory of war, especially regarding nuclear weapons
- Deterrence (legal), a theory of justice
- Deterrence (psychology), a psychological theory
- Deterrence (film), a 1999 drama starring Kevin Pollak, depicting fictional events about nuclear brinkmanship
Deterrence is a 1999 French/American dramatic film written and directed by Rod Lurie, depicting fictional events about nuclear brinkmanship. It marks the feature directorial debut of Lurie, who was previously a film critic for the New York Daily News, Premiere Magazine, Entertainment Weekly and Movieline, among others. Kevin Pollak, Timothy Hutton, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Sean Astin star. The entire story takes place in a single location, a diner.
Deterrence is the use of punishment as a threat to deter people from offending. Deterrence is often contrasted with retributivism, which holds that punishment is a necessary consequence of a crime and should be calculated based on the gravity of the wrong done.
The concept of deterrence has two key assumptions: the first is that specific punishments imposed on offenders will "deter" or prevent them from committing further crimes; the second is that fear of punishment will prevent others from committing similar crimes.
Deterrence is a theory from behavioral psychology about preventing or controlling actions or behavior through fear of punishment or retribution. This theory of criminology is shaping the criminal justice system of the United States and various other countries.
Deterrence can be divided into two separate categories.
General deterrence manifests itself in policy whereby examples are made of deviants. The individual actor is not the focus of the attempt at behavioral change, but rather receives punishment in public view in order to deter other individuals from deviance in the future.
For example, in the Islamic Crime & Punishment system (Hodood, i.e. plural of Hadd), applied 1400 years ago, the punishment for crimes was performed in public, and was aimed at general social deterrence.
Specific deterrence focuses on the individual deviant and attempts to correct his or her behavior. Punishment is meant to discourage the individual from recidivating.
At the military level, the principle is expressed in deterrence theory.
There is some debate over whether deterrence is achieved through
- the higher probability of arrest and conviction, and/or,
- severity of punishment, or
- denunciation,
and whether it is aimed at others or the offender themselves or both.
Usage examples of "deterrence".
History has shown that deterrence works best when decision makers are conservative in their goals, avoid taking risky actions, are content with the status quo, have access to high-quality information about their adversary, and work within an effective decision-making process that considers a range of possibilities and reaches a decision only after each possibility has been subjected to careful scrutiny.
Many supporters of deterrence against Iraq have taken this experience as conclusive that the terror inspired by nuclear weaponry is so overpowering that it trumps all other considerations and produces extremely conservative behavior that creates an uneasy, but durable, peace between the two sides of any nuclear standoff.
All of the arguments in favor of deterrence are flawed in that they overstate the certainty that any leader in possession of nuclear weapons can be deterred at all times.
Nevertheless, even if all of the arguments about the strength of deterrence theory were right in the abstract, the question would still remain: Do we want to base our policy toward Iraq on theories?
United States and the Soviet Union possessed all of those traits, so no one knows if deterrence worked during the Cold War because of those characteristics or because the logic of deterrence is so powerful that it would work even if none of those traits were present on one or both sides.
Although the alternatives are considerably more costly, deterrence is the riskiest of all the policy options available to the United States.
In the case of Iraq, we need to recognize that we have run out of alternatives and our options truly have come down to a dangerous deterrence or a potentially costly invasion.
Only with hindsight is it easy to assume that because the superpowers did not go over the edge it was foreordained by deterrence that they should not.
Saddam is a fundamentally aggressive and risk-taking decision maker, and the available evidence indicates that he subscribes to this dangerous interpretation of the role of nuclear deterrence in enabling conventional offensives.
Other proponents of deterrence base their assessments on misreadings of Iraqi history.
At the very least, we should look hard at deterrence and the other policy options, decide what is best for this country, and pursue that policy with conviction.
This is the difference between deterrence and invasion as policy options, the difference between risks and costs.
While these proponents of deterrence recognize that containment cannot be sustained for much longer in its current form and that reviving it is not a realistic prospect, they are even less sanguine about any of the various regime change options.
First, and for many proponents of the policy, foremost, deterrence removes the need to embark upon a policy of regime change--all of the variants of which entail significant costs and risks.
Some proponents of deterrence theory see in the notion that Saddam is not suicidal sufficient reassurance by itself.