Kahn's Escalation Ladder
From Baloogan Campaign Wiki
Contents
Subcrisis Maneuvering
- Ostensible Crisis
- Political, Economic and Diplomatic Gestures
- Solemn and Formal Declarations
Traditional Crises
Don't Rock the Boat Threshold
- Hardening of Positions -- Confrontation of Wills
- Show of Force
- Significant Mobilization
- "Legal" Harassment -- Retortions
- Harassing Acts of Violence
- Dramatic Military Confrontations
Intense Crises
Nuclear War is Unthinkable Threshold
- Provocative Breaking off of Diplomatic Relations
- Super-Ready Status
- Large Conventional War (or Actions)
- Large Compound Escalator
- Declaration of Limited Conventional War
- Barely Nuclear War
- Nuclear "Ultimatums"
- Limited Evaluations (20%)
- Spectacular Show or Demonstration of Force
- "Justifiable" Counterforce Attack
- "Peaceful" World-Wide Embargo or Blockade
Bizarre Crises
No Nuclear Use Threshold
- Local Nuclear War -- Exemplary
- Declaration of Limited Nuclear War
- Local Nuclear War -- Military
- Unusual, Provocative and Significant Countermeasures
- Evacuation (70%)
Exemplary Central Attacks
Central Sanctuary Threshold
- Demonstration Attack on Zone of Interior
- Exemplary Attack on Military
- Exemplary Attacks Against Property
- Exemplary Attacks on Population
- Complete Evacuation (95%)
- Reciprocal Reprisals
Military Central Wars
Central War Threshold
- Formal Declaration of "General" War
- Slow-Motion Counter-"Property" War
- Slow-Motion Counterforce War
- Constrained Force-Reduction Salvo
- Constrained Disarming Attack
- Counterforce-with-Avoidance Attack
- Unmodified Counterforce Attack
Civilian Central Wars
City Targeting Threshold
- Slow-Motion Countercity war
- Countervalue Salvo
- Augmented Disarming Attack
- Civilian Devastation Attack
- Controlled General War
- Spasm/Insensate War
There may be situations in which striking a center of gravity might deliver a fatal blow; but the enemy might still be able to retaliate with a lethal or unacceptably damaging response, much like a spider whose legs continue to strike after it is dead. This phenomenon is what nuclear strategist Herman Kahn once referred to as “insensate war" and it is still a possibility in today’s globalized world,
