ABSTRACT
Military persuasion is the use of armed force in order to obtain desired political or military goals. Military persuasion is a psychological strategy intended to influence the decisions of other state or non-state actors, without having to destroy their armed forces or societies. Peace and stability operations since the end of the Cold War offer many lessons with regard to overlapping ends and means in military persuasion. The interdependence of ends and means is especially important in ending a war or crisis. War and crisis management are interactive bargaining situations in which the ends and means of the participants are shared within a common decision space. Perspective taking is not the same as sympathizing with the enemy. Vladimir Putin's problem in Ukraine in 2014 was that he had to preserve a Russia-friendly regime in Kiev without taking actions so obviously menacing to the West that a military confrontation between Russia and North Atlantic Treaty Organization resulted.
