Give Peace a Chance: First, Try Coercive Diplomacy

Abstract

The first section below addresses the strategic objectives of the United States concerning Iraq and identifies a number of specific reasons why Washington cannot indefinitely accept the status quo. The argument then turns to why coercive diplomacy should be the principal means for pursuing American strategic priorities in Iraq, laying out the case for postponing unilateral use of force and assessing coercive diplomacy's strengths and weaknesses as a tool for accomplishing U.S. objectives. The third section tackles the central issue-can Saddam's regime be coerced?-by studying several cases in which the United States used coercive diplomacy against Iraq during the 1990s. The fourth section derives a framework that might make success possible or, failing that, from which Iraq would derive no significant benefits should coercive diplomacy fail and war become a necessity.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA525427

Entities

People

  • William S. Langenheim

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Air Defense
  • Diplomacy
  • Economic Sanctions
  • Governments
  • Insurgency
  • Marine Corps
  • Military Operations
  • Military Organizations
  • Negotiations
  • New York
  • Public Relations
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • United States
  • Warfare
  • Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.
  • Systems Analysis and Design