This 1983 American advertisement raised the spectre of Soviet tanks rolling toward our way of life. Four decades on, fears of Russian expansion have returned to Europe, and defence budgets are climbing accordingly. Deterrence requires credibility, but it also demands a clear-eyed view of the facts on the ground and a sober reading of history. No war is inevitable. Deterrence works. And the failure to seek rational compromise can lead to conflicts nobody wanted and tragedies nobody can undo.
Realists see both sides of the fence, yielding neither to the emotional pull of pacifism nor to the drumbeat of war. That requires cool minds and clear thinking, which has been SecDev’s raison d’être since its founding: providing dispassionate assessments and advice for the decisions that really matter, whether safeguarding your business or helping to prevent the next great power catastrophe.
