Alliance Theory: Balancing, Bandwagoning, and Détente (original) (raw)

Alliance formation and the balance of world power

International Security

Alliance Formation and the Balance of World Power Stephen M. Walt L he question "what causes alignment?" is a central issue in debates on American foreign policy, and the choices that are made often turn on which hypotheses of alliance formation are endorsed. In general, ...

Theoretical Approaches to Alliance: Implications on the R.O.K.-U.S. Alliance

2000

The R.O.K.-U.S. alliance since its conclusion in 1953 has undergone profound changes from the 1980s. At the global and regional level, we have witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union, military dominance of the United States at the global level, establishment of diplomatic and economic relationship among South Korea, Russia, and China. With the transformation of the bipolar structure, the need to contain the former communist threat lessened as well as in need for the R.O.K.-U.S. alliance. In inter-Korean relations, notable changes have taken place. In the 1990s, we witnessed the establishment of the Agreement on Reconciliation, Nonaggression, and Exchanges and Cooperation between South and North Korea (1991), North Korean withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and the historic Summit Meeting of June, 2000. The joint Declaration after the Summit and subsequent changes especially ignited sharp debates concerning various security issues such as the conceptualization of "main enemy," the possibility of future inter-Korean war, the fundamental need and the size of US military presence, and the need to maintain R.O.K.-U.S. joint military training, for example. Considering the fundamental changes that the R.O.K.-U.S. alliance confronts now, it is important to think about the continuity and change of the alliance. It is true that most of the research on the R.O.K.-U.S. alliance has focused on the historical development and the changing environments regarding the alliance. The R.O.K.-U.S. alliance received only scant attention by alliance theorists, missing many promising analyses and predictions. Considering the merits of theoretical approaches that clarify various aspects of alliances, provide comparative perspectives, and suggest possible solutions to different problems, the current situation is not satisfactory. This article attempts to fill the gap by reviewing major alliance theories and to conceive of the R.O.K.-U.S. alliance from a theoretical perspective. It deals with major issues in alliance such as the concept, function, merits and costs of alliance, balancing vs. bandwagoning behavior in alliance formation, the effect of overall international systemic structure, identity issue, security vs. autonomy trade-offs, and problems arising from the alliance maintenance such as the dilemma of entrapment/abandonment and burden sharing. With this conceptual and theoretical frameworks, this article deals with the various aspects of the R.O.K.-U.S. alliance and attempts to find out major issues of the alliance. This might give us new insights on past, present, and future aspects of the alliance, especially ones that can be contrasted with the more prevalent historical approach.

Power and Deterrence in Alliance Relationships

Conflict Management and Peace Science, 2012

I investigate the rationality of challenge and escalation when a third party, allied either to defender or challenger, is uncertain about the enemy’s power. The analysis illustrates how third-party ally power impacts general and immediate deterrence and willingness to intervene. In alliances with the defender, uncertainty about the enemy’s strength leads the third party to support the defender with a probability that decreases with the benefits that his intervention would provide although the likelihood that he is facing a strong challenger in war has increased. If the third party is allied to the challenger, ally behavior is more nuanced.

Alliances and geopolitics

Political Geography Quarterly, 1990

Following the admonition of that international relations scholars 'need to reconceptualizeexactly whut it is that we want to study, and why', the authors attempt to understand alliances through the broader context of geopolitics and geopolitical perspectives on international relations. Using the ecological triad framework of the Sprouts, and Starr's 'opportunity and willingness' framework. alliances are viewed as part of the geopolitical constraints on available possibilities in the system, as part of the set of incentive structures that affect foreign policy decision-making, and as a central mechanism that permits decision-makers to overcome the geopolitical constraints of the system. Drawing on analogies with technology and borders, alliances can be viewed as important tools for overcoming the constraints of geopolitics, and for changing the meaning of the supposedly 'permanent' nature of international geography.

Embedded Patterns of International Alliance Formation

Acta Sociologica, 1959

Using a combination of institutional, systems contingency ;md ecological theory, this paper argues and etnpirically demonsdates thai key founding characteristics of international alliances arc etnbedded (interactiveiy related) in one another. Specifically, the technical area of the alliance activity, the intended direction of product/knowledge liows atnong sponsors, and the administrative form o\' the alliances are shown to be interactively related. Further, the concept of entbeddedness was cotnbined with Transaction Cost Economics (TCE} and technological views lo show two founding pattems. One pattern called Hv'bridization was consistent with technological explanations while the second called Dominance was suggested by TCE approaches. The new interactive relationships were identified in two large samples involving US, Japanese and European lirms during a period from 1970 to 1989