OPINION Vol.1, No.1 June 2013 - National Defence University

Basic Instruments of Coercive Statecraft
Practical manifestation of coercion starts from an individual and goes beyond the boundaries of
states. But academically, coercive statecraft uses four basic tools: diplomatic, military, economic and
informational / media coercion.
Diplomatic Coercion. Diplomacy refers to influence, including both persuasion and coercion.
Diplomatic coercion is an attempt to alter a state or non-state actor’s behaviour through the threat
to use force or through the use of limited force. Diplomatic coercion involves four basic variables:
the demand, the means used for creating a sense of urgency, the threatened punishment for
non-compliance, and the possible use of incentives.
Economic Coercion. Economic coercion can be defined as the use, or threat to use, ‘measures of
an economic, as contrasted with diplomatic or military, character taken to induce a target state to
change some policy or practices or even its governmental structure’ 2 .
Military Coercion. Just as warfare is often "diplomacy carried out by other means", military
coercion, the threat of combat or the threat of an escalation in combat intensity, is a more subtle
method of dispute that shades the spectrum between diplomacy and warfare. In Coercive Military
Strategy, Stephen J. Cimbala shows that an understanding of coercive military strategy is a
necessary part of any diplomatic-strategic recipe for success. Few wars are fought for annihilation,
and military power is inherently employed for political purposes, so in any war diplomatic
resolution may be possible. To that end, coercive strategy should be flexible, for there are as many
variations as there are in warfare. Cimbala 3 shows that although military coercive strategy is a
remedy for neither the ailments of U.S. national security nor world conflict, it will become more
important in peace, crisis, and even war, in the next century.
Informational/ Media Coercion. Informational / media coercion refers to attempts to influence,
relying primarily on the deliberate manipulation of psychological instruments. Two developments,
which have culminated in the twentieth century, have made information one of the major
instruments of statecraft: the development of mass communications and the expansion of potential
or actual power base of a society. The new found power of the masses and the ability of a foreign
power to speak directly to these masses have made the informational instrument of statecraft a
major one. 4
Successful Coercive Statecraft
APPLICATIONS OF COERCIVE STATECRAFT
“To subdue the enemy without fighting, that is the acme of skill.”
Sun Tzu 5
Success in coercive statecraft depends upon the relative costs and benefits of compliance and
non-compliance for both the coercer and the target 6 . Whether the coercer inclines this in its favour,
depends on meeting the following criteria 7 :-
Proportionality. Proportionality is a relationship between a coercer’s goals/ objectives and the
force to be applied in pursuit of those objectives. But as Alexander George explains, coercive
diplomacy is a strategy of limited means: “coercive diplomacy may, but is not required to, go
beyond threats to the actual use of military force; but if force is actually used, it must be limited
and should fall short of full scale use or war” 8 . However, a strict relationship between limiting
objectives and increasing the chance of success cannot be determined.
Reciprocity. Reciprocity is the mutual informal understanding of the rewards offered by the
coercer and the concessions sought by the target. Carefully crafted carrot and stick diplomacy
institutes the terms of reciprocity. The calibration and sequence of exchanges must build gradually
and equitably to a conclusive resolution. At every key step, both sides must believe that they are
getting “something for something” rather than “nothing for something.”
Coercive Credibility. Credibility is an essential component of coercive statecraft, which
convinces the target that the coercer has both the resolve and the capability to carry out its threat.
OPINION Vol.1 No.1 24 June 2013