Facing Off and Saving Face: Covert Intervention and Escalation Management in the Korean War
@article{Carson2015FacingOA, title={Facing Off and Saving Face: Covert Intervention and Escalation Management in the Korean War}, author={Austin Carson}, journal={International Organization}, year={2015}, volume={70}, pages={103 - 131} }
Abstract States pursue their cooperative and competitive goals using both public and private policy tools. Yet there is a profound mismatch between the depth, variety, and importance of covert activity and what scholars of International Relations (IR) know about it. This article addresses this gap by analyzing how adversaries struggle for influence within the covert sphere, why they often retreat to it, and when they abandon it. It focuses on secrecy among adversaries intervening in local…
88 Citations
Tying The Adversary's Hands: Provocation, Crisis Escalation, And Inadvertent War
- Art
- 2018
Recent tensions on the Korean peninsula and in the South China Sea have led to concerns that provocative actions, such as harsh rhetoric and low-level violence, might embroil the United States in an…
The Shadow of Deterrence: Why capable actors engage in conflict short of war
- Political Science
- 2021
Recent conflicts have increasingly occurred in the “gray zone” between peace and open warfare. Novel tactics—from cyber operations to “little green men”—may make aggression at low intensities more…
After Deterrence: Explaining Conflict Short of War
- Political Science
- 2020
Recent conflicts have increasingly occurred in the “gray zone” between peace and open warfare. Novel tactics—from cyber operations to “little green men”—may make aggression at low intensities more…
Secrecy and absence in the residue of post-9/11 covert counter-terrorism
- Political Science
- 2017
This thesis examines how secrecy and absence shape the representation of covert counter-terrorism in the public sphere. Contemporary covert practices, from missile strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles…
War and diplomacy on the world stage: Crisis bargaining before third parties
- Political Science
- 2020
I analyze a three-actor model of crisis bargaining with two key features. First, diplomatic opposition raises the costs of war, but an informed state can avoid it by conveying restraint to a…
Doubling Down: The Danger of Disclosing Secret Action
- Economics
- 2020
When an actor catches a state taking an objectionable secret action, it faces a dilemma. Exposing the action could force unresolved states to terminate the behavior to save face. But it could also…
Competitive Intervention, Protracted Conflict, and the Global Prevalence of Civil War
- Political ScienceInternational Studies Quarterly
- 2019
This article develops a theory of competitive intervention in civil war to explain variation in the global prevalence of intrastate conflict. I describe the distortionary effects competitive…
Media technology, covert action, and the politics of exposure
- Political Science
- 2018
States wishing to use force in the modern era frequently face strong incentives to exploit secrecy. Successful covert operations can reduce the likelihood of unwanted escalation with powerful rivals…
Building the Rule of War: Postconflict Institutions and the Micro-Dynamics of Conflict in Eastern DR Congo
- Political ScienceInternational Organization
- 2017
Abstract Why have peace-building and reconstruction efforts so frequently failed to create durable institutions that can deter or withstand resurgent violence in volatile sites of cyclical conflict?…
Conceal or Reveal? Managing Clandestine Military Capabilities in Peacetime Competition
- Political ScienceInternational Security
- 2020
International political outcomes are deeply shaped by the balance of power, but some military capabilities rely on secrecy to be effective. These “clandestine capabilities” pose problems for…
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 96 REFERENCES
Military Culture and Inadvertent Escalation in World War II
- Political Science
- 1994
"unthinkable" means of warfare be avoided? How can states successfully observe mutually desired limitations on "taboo" forms of combat?' These questions are important because of concern that nuclear,…
Tying Hands Behind Closed Doors: The Logic and Practice of Secret Reassurance
- Political Science
- 2013
Private diplomacy and secret agreements among adversaries are major features of international relations. Sometimes secret reassurance has resulted in cooperation and even peace between longtime…
Efficient Secrecy: Public versus Private Threats in Crisis Diplomacy
- EconomicsAmerican Political Science Review
- 2007
This paper explores when and why private communication works in crisis diplomacy. Conventional audience-cost models suggest that state leaders must go public with their threats in international…
“(Mis)interpreting Threats: A Case Study of the Korean War”
- Political Science
- 2007
During the fall of 1950, many American national security officials concluded that the Chinese Communists would refrain from undertaking full-scale intervention in the Korean War. Contrary to most…
Constraining Coercion? Legitimacy and Its Role in U.S. Trade Policy, 1975–2000
- SociologyInternational Organization
- 2010
Abstract The role of legitimacy in international relations is a topic of much debate, yet there is little understanding of the mechanism behind it. Here I address this discrepancy by asking: are…
Domestic Political Audiences and the Escalation of International Disputes
- Political Science, EconomicsAmerican Political Science Review
- 1994
International crises are modeled as a political “war of attrition” in which state leaders choose at each moment whether to attack, back down, or escalate. A leader who backs down suffers audience…
The Deception Dividend: FDR's Undeclared War
- Political ScienceInternational Security
- 2010
When do leaders resort to deception to sell wars to their publics? Dan Reiter and Allan Stam have advanced a selection effects explanation for why democracies win the wars they initiate: leaders,…
Inadvertent Nuclear War?: Escalation and NATO's Northern Flank
- Political Science
- 1982
C o u l d a major EastWest conventional war be kept conventional? American policymakers increasingly seem to think so. Recent discussions of such a clash reflect the belief that protracted…
Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea
- History, Political Science
- 2013
In this blockbusting trade debut, distinguished American professor Sheila Miyoshi Jager interweaves international events and previously unknown personal accounts to give a brilliant new history of…
Democracy, War, and Covert Action
- Political Science
- 1992
It is well established that stable industrialized democracies do not use overt force against each other. But do democracies ever use covert force against other elected governments? This article…