At a time when our national security and defense is being hotly debated, this intriguing new book boldly challenges the pivotal concepts underlying much of the arguments on both sides of the debate. In a path-breaking economic analysis that presents the foundations of true security policy, The Ultimate Deterrent argues that both the United States and the Soviet Union are inherently secure from invasion, nuclear blackmail, or domination by each other. According to the author, their competitive process is a stable one because they have only limited zones of interest near their own borders, making strategic military defense unnecessary and provocative. Using economic analysis to define the superpower's true spheres of interest, the book develops a new meaning for national interest, recognizing the futility of self-destructive defense, as illustrated by Vietnam and Afghanistan.