Deterrence and War Powers

This essay examines the relationship between deterrence and the war prerogative, arguing that our understanding of the war power has become overly narrow in the post-Cold War era. Recent UK debates have often misidentified the war prerogative with the power to use force by deploying ground troops or through airstrikes, yet this framing excludes many of the activities conducted under the war prerogative short of war. These activities are closely connected to the political shape of conflicts and the strategies used to resolve them. As such, the post-Cold War viewpoint overlooks the role of the prerogative in authorising deterrent grey-zone activities below the threshold of war. Daniel Skeffington argues for the recovery of an older and more orthodox understanding of the nature and scope of the war prerogative in an era of renewed great power rivalry.