Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“French leaders and the French people should be very cautious about embracing extended deterrence obligations. Primary deterrence — threatening nuclear retaliation for an attack on one’s own country — has a high level of credibility, so long as the country has the necessary weaponry to mount a serious counterstrike. Indeed, the main point of the Cold War era’s de facto doctrine of mutual assured destruction was based on that logic. The credibility of courting similar devastation in response to an aggressor’s attack on another country — even a close ally of the defender — has always had much lower credibility.” (03/10/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/france-america-and-the-trap-of-extended-nuclear-deterrence/