Please respond to one of the following prompts. In developing your answer, be sure to think carefully about the material from class and from the readings. Your answer may be no more than 4 pages in length. When preparing your answer be sure to act in accordance with the rules for the take home exam that are on the class syllabus. Do not employ material from human subject’s research to answer their question.
- After the end of the Cold War many analysts argued that deterrence would be the key tactic for the U.S. to use to prevent future international conflicts. The Persian Gulf War that President George H.W. Bush fought against Iraq in 1991 has been described as an example of the failure of deterrence. How is it that a tactic that so many regarded as so important for avoiding conflict was unable to prevent a war in a region that at the time almost everyone regarded as vital to American and international security? In developing your answer be sure to employ the communications, capability, credibility, and compliance standards that were discussed in class for evaluating when deterrence is most likely to succeed. Provide specific examples to support your arguments, and be sure to note what the Persian Gulf experience says about the value of deterrence in the post-Cold War world.
- In March of 1983, President Ronald Reagan called for the U.S. to pursue a new nuclear strategy built around a space-based defense capability. Known as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), this proposal was an immediate source of controversy due to its implications for the mutual deterrence approach the U.S. and U.S.S.R. had been pursuing for approximately twenty years. Additionally, many critics argued that SDI might fall short of protecting the U.S. from a possible nuclear attack. Discuss how SDI might affect mutual deterrence, why SDI might not protect the U.S. from nuclear attack, and the feasibility problems a space-based system would confront.
- After the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon President George W. Bush attributed the assaults to terrorists who hated the American way of life and were lashing out at the U.S. for that reason. Based upon the class discussion and the course readings, how do you evaluate this claim? Was 9/11 motivated by a hatred for American values or did it happen for other reasons that related more to the role the U.S. played in the Middle East in the post-Cold War world and to the U.S. relationship with key countries in that region?
