This is also the most basic component of deterrence theory; deterrence works because the mutual threat of catastrophic destruction prevents the use of nuclear weapons, thereby creating a positive incentive to refrain from launching a first strike. A capable anti-missile system could, in theory, undercut the feeling of vulnerability, which would nat

Beijing now has nearly a decade of experience in dealing with trade pressure from the United States, said Shanghai-based Han Lin, the China country director for the Asia Group business consultancy While the world’s second-biggest economy was looking to increased exports as its ticket out of slumping growth, he said, Chinese economic officials als

Fourth is the dangerous emergence into the open of the long running hostility between Israel and Iran. Both have shed their decades long shadow war and have, till date, exchanged two rounds of direct attacks on each other’s territory, the latest being the October 26 Israeli strikes on Iran. While reports from within Iran are typically difficult t

At each stage of evolution, latent technological capacities exist within the structure of cultural variability; in different regions or time frames, they are selected, used, and refined, leading human groups to choose divergent evolutionary pathways. Refining these skills can even trigger technological revolutions; when the changes lead to positive

Ancient stone tools are essential for tracking cultures and their interactions. In studying them, we can see how culture evolves on uneven pathways on a cumulative trajectory. As human societies grew and sharpened their technological capacity, their cultural repertoire expanded, a process characterized not only by the empirical remains of their mat