or to armed conflict--although coercive diplomatic measures can continue to be take even in the course of armed conflict. The ideal of coercive diplomacy is to achieve diplomatic objectives with only the threat of dire consequences for the adversary, but it is often the case that, in order to make the threats credible, genuine force must be applied. In such a situation, however, only enough force is applied to make the threat credible and to get the adversary to return to the negotiating table. This is known as "exemplary" or "symbolic" use of force. In those situations when the limited use of force gets out of hand and full-scale war breaks out, coercive diplomacy has failed and the international crisis has escalated to war.
The coercive element of coercive diplomacy need not be the threat of armed conflict. Instead, nations can use economic threats, such as an economic embargo, or any other threatened action designed to extract a price from the adversary. Clearly, the greater the crisis between two nations, the higher the s
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