The Impact of New Capabilities on the Regional Deterrence Architecture in North-East Asia

The development of technology and the new capabilities that make use of it have had a major impact on the security environment and strategy. The ‘nuclear revolution’ is a major example, which has been supported by the combination of two deterrence concepts: punishment and denial. A strategy that emphasises deterrence by punishment is based on the view that nuclear weapons are ‘absolute weapons’—weapons that are too destructive to ever be used for military purposes—and that their role is limited to deterrence by retaliation.¹ Based on this view, the minimum second-strike (i.e. assured destruction) capability required to destroy critical infrastructure