Horizontal escalation : an asymmetric approach to Russian aggression? / Michael Fitzsimmons.
Year: 2019

This article examines whether horizontal escalation strategies-threats to geographically expand a conflict-can help deter Russian aggression or manage escalation in a US/NATO-Russia crisis. After summarizing the current pitfalls of conventional and nuclear deterrence strategies in Eastern Europe, the article highlights horizontal escalation's brief prominence in US Cold War strategy. It then develops and applies a simple analytic framework to four examples of horizontal escalation options in the