The threat may seem to be a promise if the pledge behind it is only one's reputation with his adversary; but it is not a promise from which the second party can unilaterally release the threatener, since he cannot convincingly dissociate his own future estimate of the threatener from the latter's performance.

DEFINE: Distinguishes a reputation-backed threat from a genuine promise, clarifying that the receiver cannot release the threatener because both are entangled in the same reputational evaluation.

Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, loc. 720