1. Israeli Nuclear Deterrence in Context: Effects of the US-Russian Rivalry
- Author:
- Louis René Beres
- Publication Date:
- 06-2019
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- The Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies (BESA)
- Abstract:
- Israel’s presumptive nuclear deterrence posture depends upon several separate but intersecting factors. Most important, of course, are the country’s weapons, infrastructures, and missile defense capabilities. Less conspicuously urgent, but still important, are the principal defining structures of world politics. These include (as ever) the fundamentally anarchic system created after the 1648 Peace of Westphalia (“The State System”) and the more transient or temporary US-Russian rivalry. This essay casts attention on the latter set of factors, or “Cold War II.” Israel’s strategists should pay close attention to this critical expression of geopolitical “context.”
- Topic:
- National Security, Nuclear Weapons, Infrastructure, and Deterrence
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Eurasia, Middle East, Israel, North America, and United States of America