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Abstract In an anarchic international society, how and when do decision-makers signal credible commitments, and what are their strategic intentions are always important topics in diplomatic studies. A review of relevant literature reveals three main approaches of credible commitment research. Rationalism approach includes deterrence theory, audience cost theory and strategic mortgage theory, which focuses on cost-benefit framework, also underlines that clear and costly signals will help to enhance the credibility of diplomatic commitments. Cultural constructivism, however, emphasizes the social context of commitment, and points out that credibility depends on the social impressions resulted from discourse communication, cultural norms and interactive practice. Whereas, social psychology highlights that subject's attributes and psychological dispositions deeply influence mutual trust in social interactions, emphasizing the psychological perception, emotional transmission and reputation evaluation mechanism at the micro-level. On the whole, the existing literature deepens our pluralistic understanding about conditions and logics of signaling diplomatic commitments, while a comprehensive analytic framework is still in need to integrate the signal-senders logic and signal-receivers logic, and we also need to pay more attention to the importance of spatial and temporal factors in credible commitments.
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