Arms and influence
by Thomas C. Schelling · first published 1966
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Traditionally, Americans have viewed war as an alternative to diplomacy, and military strategy as the science of victory. Today, however, in our world of nuclear weapons, military power is not so much exercised as threatened. It is, Mr. Schelling says, bargaining power, and the exploitation of this power, for good or evil, to preserve peace or to threaten war, is diplomacy - the diplomacy of violence. The author concentrates in this book on the way in which military capabilites - real or imagined - are used, skillfully or clumsily, as bargaining power. He sees the steps taken by the US during
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Not Sun Tzu. Thomas Schelling. His books "The Strategy of Conflict" and "Arms and Influence" are essential reading. They were influential bringing game-theory into the nuclear strategy, disarmament and foreign policy.
on “China's fragility is as worrying as its strength” ↗Once the armies were assembled it was going to be impossibly difficult to move them all back so they got put into action instead. I read a more subtle theory in the book "Arms and Influence" by Thomas C. Schelling [1]. In short, at the start of WW1, the Russians had two plans available: A plan to mobilise against the Austro-Hungarians only, and a plan to mobilise against them and the Germans…
on “Fritz Haber: A Monster Who Fed the World” ↗…dollars that no Facility Security Officer (the name for people who manage security programs for defense contractor, despite sounding like a Sunday name for ‘guards’) in the entire NNSA complex has ever read Arms and Influence. That’s not quite their demographic profile.
on “Did Sandia use a thermonuclear secondary in a product logo?” ↗