The new National Military Strategy contains a number of departures from principles that have shaped the American defense posture since the Second World War. Most significant is the shift from containing the spread of communism and deterring Soviet aggression to a more diverse, flexible strategy which is regionally oriented. This study examines these shifts and their impact on the future of deterrence. Its primary thesis is that new conditions require a dramatic shift from a nuclear to a conventional force dominant deterrent. During the cold war, conventional deterrence was severely undermined by its subordination to the bipolar strategic nuclear competition. The author argues that conditions now exist for a coherent concept of extended conventional deterrence. The Strategic Studies Institute is pleased to publish this study as a contribution to the debate on National Military Strategy. Karl W. Robinson Colonel, U.S. Army Director, Strategic Studies Institute Back to Table of Contents Deterrence and Conventional Military Forces Back to SSI List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by US Army War College. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com