Power reverses strategies when the threat shifts from the real to simulation

Evidence

As long as the historical threat came at it from the real, power played at deterrence and simulation, disintegrating all the contradictions by dint of producing equivalent signs. Today when the danger comes at it from simulation (that of being dissolved in the play of signs), power plays at the real, plays at crisis, plays at remanufacturing artificial, social, economic, and political stakes. For power, it is a question of life and death. But it is too late. — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 84

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The reversal of deterrence is central to the whole theory: power once simulated to absorb the real threat, now manufactures ‘real’ crises to absorb the simulation threat. This phase-shift in power’s strategy is the theoretical load-bearing point.
• XREF: connects to: Simulation produces real symptoms and threatens the true-false distinction — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 10; Simulation threatens power more than real transgression by attacking the reality principle itself — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 74; Power risks shifted from temporal to factual, success and consensus dimensions (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Simulation governs deterrence better than actual catastrophe does #corroborates (0.80) — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 190
• Credible threats can be conveyed by action rather than verbal pledge #corroborates (0.78) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 34
• Power risks shifted from temporal to factual, success and consensus dimensions #expands (0.75)
• Commitment buys first move while threat commits to a second-move response strategy #expands (0.75) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 294
• A fulfilled threat gains credibility from its value to future threats, not present gain #qualifies (0.75) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 83
• Empty, unenforced threats inflate power and devalue its motivational tools #complicates (0.72) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 763
• Great-power alignments in South Asia shift with the strategic threat environment #exemplifies (0.70) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 676