How can ritual help to understand the practice of deterrence? Traditional deterrence scholarship tends to overlook the active role of deterring actors in creating and redefining the circumstances to which they are allegedly only reacting. In order to address the weight of deterrence as a symbol, collective representation and strategic repertoire, this article proposes to rethink deterrence as a performative strategic practice with ritual features and critical binding, releasing and restraining functions. I posit a ritual account of deterrence to better grasp the performance, credibility and the presumed effect of this central international security practice. An understanding of deterrence as a ritual-like social practice probes the scope of rational deterrence theory, replacing its ‘I think, therefore I deter’ presumption with a socially and politically productive ‘I am, therefore I deter’ logic. Drawing on the example of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s enhanced Forward Presence, the proposed conceptualization of extended deterrence as an interaction ritual chain in allied defence, solidarity and community-building offers novel insights about the deterrence and collective identity nexus. Extended deterrence has much more than deterrence at stake: how an alliance practices deterrence tells us more about the alliance itself than about the nature of threats it responds to. The tripwire posture of the enhanced Forward Presence highlights the instrumentality of ritualization for mediating ambiguity in extended deterrence.

仪式如何帮助理解威慑行为？传统的威慑奖学金往往忽略了威慑演员在创造和重新定义他们据称仅对之作出反应的环境方面的积极作用。为了解决威慑作为象征，集体代表和战略手段的重要性，本文提议重新考虑威慑作为一种具有仪式性，批判性约束，释放和约束功能的表演性战略实践。我对威慑的仪式进行了说明，以更好地掌握这一中央国际安全实践的表现，信誉和预期效果。对威慑作为一种仪式般的社会实践的理解，探索了理性威慑理论的范围，取代了它的“我认为，因此，我会以具有社会和政治意义的“我是，因此我会阻止”的逻辑来阻止“推定”。以北大西洋公约组织增强的前进存在为例，提议的将扩大威慑概念化为盟国防御，团结和社区建设中的互动仪式链，为威慑和集体身份联系提供了新颖的见解。扩大威慑远不止是威慑，还在于：联盟如何实施威慑如何告诉我们有关联盟本身的更多信息，而不是其应对威胁的性质。增强的“前向存在”的绊线姿势突出了仪式化的工具，以调解扩展威慑中的歧义。以北大西洋公约组织增强的前进存在为例，提议的将扩大威慑概念化为盟国防御，团结和社区建设中的互动仪式链，为威慑和集体身份联系提供了新颖的见解。扩大威慑远不止是威慑，还在于：联盟如何实施威慑如何告诉我们有关联盟本身的更多信息，而不是其应对威胁的性质。增强的“前向存在”的绊线姿势突出了仪式化的工具，以调解扩展威慑中的歧义。以北大西洋公约组织增强的前进存在为例，提议的将扩大威慑概念化为盟国防御，团结和社区建设中的互动仪式链，为威慑和集体身份联系提供了新颖的见解。扩大威慑远不止是威慑，还在于：联盟如何实施威慑如何告诉我们有关联盟本身的更多信息，而不是其应对威胁的性质。增强的“前向存在”的绊线姿势突出了仪式化的工具，以调解扩展威慑中的歧义。团结和社区建设提供了有关威慑和集体身份联系的新颖见解。扩大威慑远不止是威慑，还在于：联盟如何实施威慑如何告诉我们有关联盟本身的更多信息，而不是其应对威胁的性质。增强的“前向存在”的绊线姿势突出了仪式化的工具，以调解扩展威慑中的歧义。团结和社区建设提供了有关威慑和集体身份联系的新颖见解。扩大威慑远不止是威慑，还在于：联盟如何实施威慑如何告诉我们有关联盟本身的更多信息，而不是其应对威胁的性质。增强的“前向存在”的绊线姿势突出了仪式化的工具，以调解扩展威慑中的歧义。