How to make effective threats: Trump, toddlers and the Kaiser

Inspired by an evening conversation (a highly tactically fuelled conversation on the subject of bedtime) between Sam and his youngest son, we began thinking about the many threats that we make day to day in correspondence with our opponents. What is the aim of these threats? Do our opponents take them seriously? Are we all caught in a vortex of reserving our right for no reason? These questions led us to think carefully about how best to deploy threats in correspondence, how to ensure they are credible and land with the opponent, and most crucially, ensure they don’t backfire by leaving exposed loopholes for the opponent to get through (or for a 3-year-old to get through…).