The Essence of Coercive Air Power

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This essay is designed to provide the warfighter with a basic and somewhat informal overview of coercion, emphasizing but not limited to the coercive use of air power.1 The subject is central to almost all military strategy, yet it is not often addressed in a systematic way in either military education or military doctrine. This lack of comprehensive attention is due to a variety of factors, ranging from the philosophical misperception that because it is a matter of politics, coercion falls outside the principal sphere of military concern, to the practical obstacles to study that are posed by a field developed by independent theorists who often do not share even a common vocabulary. This article will argue that it is nevertheless essential for the strategist – especially the air power strategist – to understand the essentials of military coercion, and will try along the way to dispel some of the ‘fog of theory’ that often clouds this subject.

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