Deterrence and Foreign Policy

The article by Christopher Achen and Duncan Snidal in this issue, however provocative some of its observations, has the merit of raising an important question: How should we think about the relationship between deductive theories of deterrence on the one hand and, on the other, research on deterrence that is at the same time empirical and oriented toward theory? While forcefully defending the deductive form of theory, Achen and Snidal also clearly dissociate themselves from the extreme position that it is a self-contained enterprise that need not take empirical research seriously. Rather, they recognize that empirical case studies are capable of contributing, and, indeed, have to some extent already contributed, to the development of theory, perhaps even to the kind of deductive theory they favor.