The rapid proliferation and growing sophistication of aerospace weapons--rockets, missiles, and drones--have altered the landscape of warfare. The influence of these weapons on the battlefield is felt profoundly, yet the mechanism of coercion by which these weapons alter the will of the adversary is poorly understood. In Bombing to Provoke, Jaganath Sankaran argues that it is not what these aerospace weapons physically do but what they prompt the target state to do in response that matters for understanding their coercive effect. By threatening a chemical, biological, or nuclear strike or demonstrating the ability to bombard the target's economic and political core repeatedly, aerospace weapons coerce by weaponizing fear and triggering a sense of defenselessness. Sankaran provides a series of historical and current case studies to show how these fears amplify the political vulnerabilities of the target state, coercing it to divert substantial military resources away from other vital
