A deterrent threat is only too large when its size damages credibility

Evidence

Also, as far as the power to deter is concerned, there is no such thing as “too large” a threat; if it is large enough to succeed, it is not carried out anyway. A threat is only “too large” if its very size interferes with its credibility. Atomic destruction for small misdemeanors, like expensive incarceration for overtime parking, would be superfluous but not exorbitant unless the threatened person considered it too awful to be real and ignored it. — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 711

Categorization

• DEFINE: Key definition: the upper bound on threat size is credibility, not excessiveness — the driver of the Godfather’s logic of proportioned retaliation.
• XREF: Explains why the Don’s threats of ‘an accident’ are big enough to deter yet structured to stay credible — versus Sonny’s thermonuclear rage that reads as bloodthirsty and over-heavy. — connects to: Protection demands are credible only when they come from established sources.; Threatening a small risk beats threatening certainty when the enemy’s controllability is uncertain. — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 427; Small-probability threats are superior to large certain threats in compellence — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 442 (+2 more)

Related

• Threatening a small risk beats threatening certainty when the enemy’s controllability is uncertain. (similarity 0.81)
• Small-probability threats are superior to large certain threats in compellence (similarity 0.81)
• A deterrence threat often hurts the threatener as much as the threatened (similarity 0.80)
• Protection demands are credible only when they come from established sources. (similarity 0.79)
• A credible threat works precisely because it need never be carried out. (similarity 0.79)