Not With Impunity

How should the United States determine its response to a chemical or biological attack against American personnel or interests? This paper assesses the current U.S. reprisal policy known as calculated ambiguity and concludes that today.s policy does not contain enough substance to support strategy development. Current policy is designed to deter chemical and biological attacks by threatening an overwhelming and devastating response, with the strong implication that nuclear weapons may be employed in the U.S. response. The current policy is inadequate because it lacks credibility, it fails to address proportionality, and it focuses on state actors. To improve the policy.s efficacy, two clarifications are needed: make regime survivability the hallmark of the policy, and determine under what conditions nuclear weapons would be considered.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. Read more