Definition

Deterrence refers to the act of discouraging or preventing something from happening by creating fear of the consequences. It is often used in the context of preventing crime or war through the threat of punishment or retaliation.

Pronunciation

US English

UK English


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Excerpts from News Articles

Finland’s border with Russia stretches more than 800 miles and is already closely patrolled. The nation’s membership doubles the alliance’s land border. “On one hand, this provides NATO with enhanced deterrence as Moscow would need to defend this border,” said Carisa Nietsche, an associate fellow for the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. “On the other hand, NATO also must protect this border against a Russian attack.”

Logo 2022-05-19 The Washington Post

Under Xi’s rule, aggression towards Taiwan has increased and analysts believe the threat of invasion is at its highest in decades. In recent years the People’s Liberation Army has sent hundreds of war planes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, as part of greatly increased “grey zone” activities, which are combat-adjacent but don’t meet the threshold of war. Taiwan is working to modernise its military and is buying large numbers of military assets and weapons from the US in the hope it can deter Xi and the CCP from making a move.

Logo 2022-08-01 The Guardian

Did these prosecutions deter future leaders from wrongdoing? For what it’s worth, Korea’s two most recent presidents have so far kept out of legal trouble.

Logo 2022-08-16 The Conversation

For Leader Kim Jong Un, these weapons — which he has pursued in defiance of some of the world’s toughest sanctions — are crucial to defending his rule against any potential attacks from what he views as “hostile forces”, in essence, the United States and South Korea. Some analysts believe Kim’s ultimate goal may be to invade South Korea — as his grandfather Kim Il Sung unsuccessfully tried to do in 1950 — and to deter Washington from coming to Seoul’s aid in the event of war.

Logo 2022-11-09 Al Jazeera

For decades, U.S.-Gulf ties have centered most closely around security. The U.S. maintains an airbase in Qatar that's been used in the fight against Islamic State militants. The Navy's Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, patrols the Persian Gulf to deter Iran.

Logo 2023-01-12 NPR

"Today we are mourning a constitutional loss (...) but I’m not discouraged or deterred , the fight is not over," says the founder of Black Feminists Matter and organiser of the protest.

Logo 2023-01-23 EURO News

But early data from 2023 suggests the 1% tax isn’t significantly deterring buybacks. Companies announced {$}132 billion in buybacks in January, three times as much as a year earlier and the most for the month on record.

Logo 2023-02-10 The Conversation

"This charade is not going to deter us from raising questions" about the Adani group and its alleged ties to Modi, it said.

Logo 2023-02-24 CNN News

The Deterring America's Technological Adversaries, or DATA, Act, would revoke longstanding protections that for decades have shielded creative content, like the short videos on TikTok, from U.S. sanctions.

Logo 2023-03-01 CNBC

MPs heard the failure was not necessarily a deterrent to companies wanting to launch from the UK in the future, but rather the deterrent is the Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) regulatory procedure.

Logo 2023-03-01 The Independent

Farrar said Khan's work at the agency has included deterring companies from "anticompetitive business practices" and that now they "are choosing to invest and innovate instead of pursuing illegal schemes that they know will be swiftly met with real consequences."

Logo 2023-03-07 NPR

Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to further upgrade the Kremlin's arsenal of long-range nuclear-capable missiles in order to deter Kyiv and its powerful Western allies, U.S. officials warned Wednesday.

Logo 2023-03-08 CNBC

Renewables often require a big upfront investment to pay for devices, such as wind turbines and solar panels, and their installation on the ground. These lofty expenses can deter investors from going into the renewable sector, particularly if they feel their financial contribution will not pay off as expected.

Logo 2023-03-15 EURO News

“The lifetime allowance has long acted as a drag anchor on strong investment performance and a deterrent to retirement saving while also creating horrendous complexity in the system.

Logo 2023-03-15 The Independent

It could disrupt numerous other scenes: those populated with young, queer voices; or those inclined toward activism; or those that pride themselves on their independence. Pop stars could be deterred from bringing their tours to Music City, or going there to make use of its infrastructure, work with its seasoned pros or brush up against its history. It's hard to imagine an entertainment town thriving when LGBTQIA+ expression, a prime mover in popular culture always and everywhere, gets constricted.

Logo 2023-03-21 NPR

But, he noted, the ever-closer relation should not deter Brussels from engaging with Beijing.

Logo 2023-03-22 EURO News

"Anything that will seek to diminish or deter from the legislative predictability that we need, not only as a parliament but as a European Union and as a co-legislator is something that we will always caution against."

Logo 2023-03-23 EURO News

US-based think-tank The Institute for the Study of War claimed that Putin had portrayed the ammunition as "escalatory in order to deter Western security assistance, despite the shells not containing any fissile or radiological material." Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close Putin ally, warned Russia would retaliate by providing Belarus with ammunition containing "real uranium.

Logo 2023-03-23 CGTN

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who reportedly "guided" the drill, said it should serve as a warning for the United States and South Korea to "realise the DPRK's unlimited nuclear war deterrence capability being bolstered up at a greater speed".

Logo 2023-03-24 EURO News

"Russia once again confirms its chronic inability to be a responsible steward of nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence and prevention of war, and not as a tool of threats and intimidation," the ministry said in a statement. "The world must unite against the one who threatens the future of human civilization."

Logo 2023-03-26 CNBC

A user suggested the South Korean government should resolve underlying issues that deter couples from having babies.

Logo 2023-03-27 The Independent

Sadly, the trauma of living in financial distress can also break up families. Losing the symbols of hard-gained success and facing the prospect of a reduced lifestyle can be tough. It often triggers feelings of personal failure and self doubt that deter us from taking proactive steps to talk openly and seek help.

Logo 2023-03-28 The Conversation

U.S. President Joe Biden says the sole purpose of his country's nuclear weapons arsenal is to deter attacks on the country. /Blair Gable/Reuters U.S. President Joe Biden says the sole purpose of his country's nuclear weapons arsenal is to deter attacks on the country. /Blair Gable/Reuters

Logo 2023-03-28 CGTN

Efforts are being exerted to pump new life into Roosevelt’s doctrine – through which he forged an alliance with the Soviet Union, despite calling it a "dictatorship as absolute as any other dictatorship in the world" and vowed to supply weapons to the USSR against Nazi Germany – to defeat Russia and deter China.

Logo 2023-03-29 China Daily

Schiff, the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN that this latest move should be seen “in concert with their nuclear announcements, the abrogation of their treaty obligations, as a way of just ramping up pressure on the West, signaling that Moscow’s going to use whatever tools it has, including essentially hostage-taking, to try to deter the United States and the west from opposing its ambitions in Ukraine.”

Logo 2023-03-30 CNN News

After months of sounding the alarm about students using AI apps that can churn out essays and assignments, teachers are getting AI technology of their own. On April 4, Turnitin is activating the software I tested for some 10,700 secondary and higher-educational institutions, assigning “generated by AI” scores and sentence-by-sentence analysis to student work. It joins a handful of other free detectors already online. For many teachers I’ve been hearing from, AI detection offers a weapon to deter a 21st-century form of cheating.

Logo 2023-04-01 The Washington Post

The British government is hoping to send thousands of asylum seekers more than 6,500km (4,000 miles) away to the East African country as part of a 120-million-pound ({$}148m) deal to deter people from crossing the English Channel from France in small boats.

Logo 2023-04-02 Al Jazeera

Macron wants to deter China from getting even closer to Russia, but some analysts warn that there is not much room for manoeuvre given that the nature of relations between Beijing and Moscow is highly strategic.

Logo 2023-04-03 EURO News

US chipmakers have previously considered expanding their presence in Brazil for this very reason, he explained. However a lack of infrastructure, talent, and a history of political unrest have largely deterred long-term, large-scale investment.

Logo 2023-04-03 The Register

Putin and his cronies that they can muster the arms, the materiel, the personnel — and most of all, the will — to break Russian lines and recapture Ukraine’s sovereign territory. Only victory will restore the international principle that land grabs are unacceptable, and reestablish the deterrent credibility of the United States and its NATO partners in the face of aggression from Russia, China and other powers in the grip of expansionist fever dreams.

Logo 2023-04-03 The Washington Post

Such drones might be used to help the Chinese military to deter US aircraft from operating surveillance flights close to China's south eastern coast, the report suggests.

Logo 2023-04-03 The Register

Such criticism has done little, however, to deter Bukele, whose popularity has surged as the crackdown exerts pressure on networks of gangs that have brought violence and exploitation to many areas of the country for years.

Logo 2023-04-03 Al Jazeera

"It's a positive start - no activations - so in my mind it looks like the deployment of these devices is acting ultimately in the way we want them to, which is that deterrent ," Meeson said.

Logo 2023-04-03 Channel NewsAsia

“One main option for Iran is that they will increase their air defence assets in Syria to improve deterrence ,” he said, adding that this could include a capability to hit Israeli jets in the future in addition to the current early warning systems that are thought to be in place in Syria.

Logo 2023-04-03 Al Jazeera

Deputy Law Minister Ramkarpal Singh said capital punishment was an irreversible punishment that had not been an effective deterrent for crime.

Logo 2023-04-03 Al Jazeera