Coercive Diplomacy - Background

Background

The term 'coercive diplomacy' falls under the theory of coercion as a foreign policy tool. In their book The Dynamics of Coercion-American Foreign Policy and the Limits of Military Might, Daniel Byman and Matthew Waxman define coercive diplomacy as “getting the adversary to act a certain way via anything short of brute force; the adversary must still have the capacity of organized violence but choose not to exercise it.” Coercion strategy “relies on the threat of future military force to influence an adversary’s decision making but may also include limited uses of actual force.”

A strategy commonly associated with coercion theory and coercive diplomacy is the concept of deterrence, or “the maintenance of military power for the purpose of discouraging attack.” The term deterrence is differentiated from coercive diplomacy. In his influential work, Arms and Influence, Thomas Schelling puts forth a general concept of coercion theory as it emerges beyond deterrence. According to Schelling, deterrence is merely a passive threat aimed at keeping an adversary from acting. It is only a threat. "Initiative is placed on the opponent to take the first action triggering a response from the coercer." Schelling believes that deterrence does not present "a comprehensive picture of coercion, leading Schelling to introduce the concept of compellence."

'Compellence', in contrast to 'deterrence', shifts the initiative for the first action to the coercer. While deterrence means waiting passively in hope of not seeing a response, compellence is active, thereby, “inducing his withdrawal, or his acquiescence, or his collaboration by an action that threatens to hurt.” When differentiating between deterrence and compellence, deterrence can be described as "drawing a line in the sand" and acting only if the adversary crosses it; in contrast, compellence “requires that the punishment be administered until the other acts rather than if he acts” as in deterrence. "Coercion composed of both compellence and deterrence is about action and inaction.” Alexander L. George, a scholar of international relations and former professor of political science at Stanford University, was a pioneer in the field of political psychology. Like Schelling before him, Alexander George worked to create a diplomatic strategy of coercion; his was the theory of coercive diplomacy. Unlike Schelling, George's theory of 'coercive diplomacy' is different than Schelling's 'coercive warfare', in that he believed that coercive diplomacy was "a subset of coercion and compellence." He viewed it as encompassing “defensive” compellent actions only: to force a target to stop or reverse action already taken, rather than an offensive goal of forcing them to do something...Coercive diplomacy essentially is the embodiment of a “carrot and stick” philosophy: motivation is used to induce a target to submit to your wishes, while appearing threatening at the same time."