The Role of Access-Denial in Coercive Diplomacy, the Dialectic of Interdiction for Area Control in Asia

The present article discusses the challenges caused by the anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) systems, a set of military capabilities and actions that could be used for either preventing a military force from entering an area of crisis (anti-access) or degrading its freedom of movement within an operational theatre (area-denial). Along with the past findings and the current challenges that research faces, the following analysis aims at presenting A2/AD’s role in the episodes of crisis where a limited use of force or a threat to use force serves as a bargaining tool to assert the political will of a state or a non-state actor. A modus operandi which was analyzed through the concept of coercive diplomacy…