Escalation and Intrawar Deterrence During Limited Wars in the Middle East

摘要

This monograph analyzes military escalation and intrawar deterrence by examining two key wars where these concepts became especially relevant - the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq. Intrawar deterrence is defined as the effort to control substantial military escalation during an ongoing war through the threat of large-scale and usually nuclear retaliation should the adversary escalate a conflict beyond a particularly important threshold. The deep contrasts between the 1973 and 1991 dangers of escalation underscore the range of problems that can occur in these types of circumstances.