This is a very important book. It deserves serious consideration by strategic thinkers, military planners, international relations theorists, and scholars in the field of security studies. If you wonder what, if anything, new can be said about deterrence theory, think again. Remarkably, Gartzke and Lindsey have broken new ground in a field that has already been heavily plowed. Elements of Deterrence challenges much of the received wisdom on the subject, both theoretically and empirically. The end result is a much deeper and more nuanced understanding of how complex deterrence relationships operate in the emerging political and technological environment that will govern interstate relations for the foreseeable future.