Making such a strategy work against an anti-hegemonic coalition, however, requires not just any form of fait accompli. Simply seizing and holding some arbitrary part of a victim state’s territory is not enough. The goal is disaffiliation of the target from the coalition, and inducing a state to disaffiliate from an alliance or coalition will almost certainly impinge on its core goods. The whole point of membership in such an alliance—and in the coalition—is precisely to protect the state’s core goods, especially its political autonomy. Getting the state to give up its core goods will therefore
...more
