4 thoughts on “Compellence/Coercion”

  1. A step commonly taken after deterrence fails that refers to the use of force to make another actor take some action. An example is the relations between US and JAPAN; compellence in the form of nuclear bombs and coercion in 1945.

  2. This would be a 3.5/4. Compellence can entail use of force or the threat of use of force. In cases where an actor uses force to compel, the signal is “see, I just hurt you – if you don’t do what I want, I can hurt you more”. In the Japanese example, one can say the signal sent was: if you don’t surrender, you will suffer more.

  3. your direct goal is to make another actor do something, this is significantly harder than deterring someone from doing something. An example would be how the US dropped nuclear bombs on Japan in 19455 to compel them to stop fighting. In most cases compellence is used as punishment. The question is how much is enough and when can it become counter productive. Also there often is a question about what punishment is best.

  4. Because compellence involves completely altering the compelled states behavior, publicly portraying their weakness and inferiority, the compelled state may feel embarrassed and therefore refuse the circumstances of the agreement in order to regain its integrity and pride. Also because there is typically a lack of clarity on what the compellent action is, it is more difficult for the compelled to imply. However, the threat or use of force against and actor can also help to reveal the intentions of the compelled actor- the offer of a grand bargain would put the compelled state in a difficult position, insofar as declining the offer would be equivalent to revealing its intentions, giving the actor presenting the bargain legitimate reason to launch a preventive or preemptive war.

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