In statecraft, there are two key approaches signaling and shaping. Signaling is the representations of strength that a state displays to alter the actions of another state. Shaping is the changing of the state of play itself, for example disrupting antagonistic economies or spying on an ally to gain strategic information you otherwise wouldnât have1.
1. Buchanan, B. The Hacker and the State: Cyber Attacks and the New Normal of Geopolitics. (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2020).