Lecture 5: Alliances Flashcards
Essential Components of Alliance Definition
“An alliance is a formal agreement among independent states to cooperate militarily in the face of potential or realized military conflict.”
- First, alliances need to be formal agreements (i.e. written agreements with legal force – mostly associated with treaties but can also include conventions, executive agreements and joint policy declarations)
- Second, alliances are agreements among independent states. At least two states must sign the agreement, and each member must retain its sovereignty and independence (empires and colonies do not qualify)
- Third, alliances promise cooperation in addressing military threats (must be a commitment for cooperative action in the event of conflict)
Related Terminology to alliance
- Defensive Pact: Intervene militarily on the side of any treaty partner that is attacked militarily
- Offensive Pact: Commitment to engage in coordinated military action outside the territory of any alliance member and in the absence of a direct attack
- Alignments: states that share policy positions and coordinate their actions might be called aligned, but only those who have formalized their commitments with a written agreement may be called allied
- Entente: usually involves consultation/cooperation in a crisis/war rather than specify conditions of military support
- Collective security agreements: support internal stability rather than directed externally
- Neutrality: remain neutral if any co-signatory is attacked
- Non-aggression: two or more states won’t use force against each other … but this does not make them allies, e.g. Soviet Union/West Germany after 1970
Ad hoc alliances
typically referred to as coalitions formed for a specific and immediate purpose
Permanent alliances
more accurate term is ‘indefinite’ – usually formed to counter longer term threats … but nothing is forever!
Why alliances (Realist)?
- Effort by states to maximize their capabilities to counterbalance the overwhelming power of another individual state or group of states (balancing)
- If states unable to balance they are obliged to accommodate rather than become a victim (bandwagoning)
- Generally, states prefer to balance
- Other, power-maximizing states, choose to ally with revisionist power
Especially if it is a revisionist power, favourable to them then it needs balancing behaviour.
Capabilities Aggregation
states form alliances to combine their military capabilities and thereby improve their security position
why alliances liberalist/constructivist
- states create alliances in expectation their members can achieve a certain level of cooperation.
- the bigger the external threat the greater the alliance cohesion will be.
- Benefits must outweigh costs.
- External threat can trigger alliance formation but other common interest can ensure sustainability.
Intra-Alliance Relations
- Burden-sharing: do some states bear a disproportionate share of the costs while other members free ride?
- Decision-making: Do all states have an equal voice?
- Fear of abandonment: will allies desert a member requiring help?
- Fear of entrapment: prospect of being dragged into misguided wars due to alliance commitments
Key military aspects
- Strategic level (political cohesion)
- Operational level (unity of command)
- Tactical level (interoperability)
Three types of alliances
- Open: Treaty terms publicized (deterrence value maximum)
- Partially open/partially secret: existence of alliance is publicly acknowledged but some terms of agreement (e.g. triggers for common military action) remain secret
- Secret: existence of alliance + terms are secret (deterrence value minimal)
Theory ww1 was a result of secret alliances and diplomacy
Why do alliances collapse
- Members do not have sufficiently common interests to keep them aligned for an extended time
- Lack of ideological affinity
- Lack of incentive to cooperate militarily
Why Nato endures?
- NATO ostensibly in a constant state of internal crises
- Yet no NATO state has fully withdrawn from the Alliance
Common interests - Ideological (democratic norms)
- Threat perception (Soviet Union/Warsaw Pact/post-Soviet Russia/general instability)
- Internal stability (members don’t fight each other)
- Financial (collective security reduces national defence burden)
When a NATO member is being attacked
NATO’s Article 5 requires members to respond to an attack on one member, but each country decides how to contribute, with no obligation to provide military force.
