ABSTRACT
In this chapter, students will learn about coercion as a distinctive type of strategy, in which the intention is to use threats to put pressure on another actor to do something against their wishes (compellence) or not to do something they had planned to do (deterrence). The chapter considers the different forms that coercion can take in terms of the ambition of the objective, the methods used (denial versus punishment) and the capacity of the target for counter-coercion. It also analyses how perceptions of an actor’s strategic environment are formed and the extent to which these perceptions are susceptible to targeted threats as part of another’s coercive strategy.
