A strategy for war termination should thus enable careful escalation management yet also fail gracefully if it does not work. It should not only press China but offer China’s decision-makers reason to avoid a cataclysmic course and provide opportunities for de-escalation if things start to get out of hand. In other words, it should push China toward concession while giving it incentives to act with restraint. At the same time, a war termination strategy should allow for iteration and the prospect of error while avoiding prompting China to respond with massively destructive nuclear attacks.
...more
