"Better to jaw-jaw than to war-war," Winston Churchill once quipped, showing that not even tough-minded war leaders prefer war to diplomacy in principle. But deciding when to negotiate with foreign adversaries, what to say to them, and when to resort to methods other than talk is not simple. In efforts to resolve international problems,every course of action including straightforward,non-coercive diplomacy has its pros and cons.

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A US Marine Corps VXE30 Stalker unmanned aerial system is staged during a maritime domain awareness training exercise in southern Finland on July 31, 2025. (DVIDS)