Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Strategic Substitution: China’s Search for Coercive Leverage in the Information Age

    Author:
  • Fiona Cunningham
| Summer 2022

Summary

After the mistaken U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999, China turned to information-age weapons such as cyberattacks to increase its coercive leverage over the United States. China calculated that it could use these weapons strategically to create a risk of escalation to nuclear war with the United States. China combines its information-age capabilities with a retaliatory nuclear posture to compensate for its conventional military inferiority. This shift is explained by a theory of strategic substitution.

Want to Read More?

The full text of this publication is available via the original publication source.
Read Full Article
For more information on this publication: Belfer Communications Office
For Academic Citation:

Fiona S. Cunningham, "Strategic Substitution: China’s Search for Coercive Leverage in the Information Age," International Security, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Summer 2022), pp. 46–92, https://doi.org/10.1162/isec_a_00438.

The Author

Recommended
In the Spotlight
RSS
Anatol Klass in this article reassesses Sino-Indian cooperation by focusing on India’s role as an intermediary between the unrecognised government in Beijing and the United Nations (UN).
In this policy brief, Nicole Grajewski and Ellie Geranmayeh explore the unprecedented level of cooperation between Moscow and Tehran that has emerged since the 2022 war in Ukraine.
Paula Dobriansky, Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center, discusses her expectations for a trade summit between the EU and China, coming off the heels of the UN General Assembly.
Most Viewed

Tags