Deterrence Is Not Enough in the Age of Synthetic Asymmetry

The article argues that traditional deterrence strategies are ineffective against modern synthetic asymmetry, where non-state actors and cyber operations exploit technological convergence to cause disproportionate economic and societal disruption. It emphasizes the need for democracies to adopt 'synthetic resilience'—a capacity to absorb and adapt to multi-domain attacks—highlighting examples like the 2021 Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, which caused billions in downstream economic losses.