Facing Iran and its Proxies: Israel ‘s Legal Options for Preemption and Self-Defense
Abstract: Israel has begun to exercise tactical preemption options against Hezbollah, Iran’s most threatening proxy. The most recent and conspicuous preemptions have taken place...
Clarifying Strategic Risks: Scenarios of an Israel-Iran War
Iran continues to taunt Israel with threats of annihilation. But such threats have no tangible strategic foundation. They are erected on a flimsy structure...
The United States, North Korea and Nuclear War
“The laws of physics are decrees of fate.”-Alfred North Whitehead, The Origins of Modern Science
Among the world’s nuclear trouble spots, North Korea is the...
Madness and World Politics: Risks of a Nuclear War
Abstract: Whether by design or inadvertence – by “bolt-from-the-blue” attacks or incremental aggressions – certain states could find themselves embroiled in a nuclear war....
American and Russian “Firebreaks”: Survival Risks of Asymmetrical Nuclear Doctrine
“Deterrence is not just a matter of military capabilities. It has a great deal to do with perceptions of credibility.”– Herman Kahn, Thinking About...
Israel And “Last Things”
Examined historically, war and terror against Israel are better explained by eschatology (the study of “last things”) than by enemy hopes for “self-defense” or...
Could Israeli Nuclear Deterrence Protect Against Iranian Non-Nuclear Attacks?
Abstract: As Israel approaches a full-scale war with Iran, its nuclear weapons and strategy are generally presumed irrelevant to deterring that state’s non-nuclear threats....
Nuclear Command Authority and the U.S. Presidential Election
“The terrible ifs accumulate.” Winston Churchill
An Overlooked “If”
Until the eleventh hour of his incoherent presidency, Donald J. Trump held effectively unchecked nuclear command authority....
Impending War with Iran: Israel’s Lawful Opportunity to Prevent Iranian Nuclear Weapons
Abstract: Israel’s “no choice” Gaza War has been fought primarily against sub-state terrorist adversary Hamas. In the coming weeks, however, a threatened “retaliation” from...
Still Calculable Connections: Israeli Nuclear Deterrence and War with Iran
“The worst does sometimes happen.”-Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss Playwright
The author, Emeritus Professor Louis René Beres, has been lecturing and publishing for more than fifty years...