The Burden-Sharing Dilemma : : Coercive Diplomacy in US Alliance Politics / / Brian D. Blankenship.

• VerfasserIn: Blankenship, Brian D.,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Series: Cornell Studies in Security Affairs
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (210 p.) :; 1 chart, 12 graphs

The Burden-Sharing Dilemma examines the conditions under which the United States is willing and able to pressure its allies to assume more responsibility for their own defense. The United States has a mixed track record of encouraging allied burden-sharing—while it has succeeded or failed in some cases, it has declined to do so at all in others. This variation, Brian D. Blankenship argues, is because the United States tailors its burden-sharing pressure in accordance with two competing priorities: conserving its own resources and preserving influence in its alliances. Although burden-sharing enables great power patrons like the United States to lower alliance costs, it also empowers allies to resist patron influence. Blankenship identifies three factors that determine the severity of this burden-sharing dilemma and how it is managed: the latent military power of allies, the shared external threat environment, and the level of a patron's resource constraints. Through case studies of US alliances formed during the Cold War, he shows that a patron can mitigate the dilemma by combining assurances of protection with threats of abandonment and by exercising discretion in its burden-sharing pressure. Blankenship's findings dismantle assumptions that burden-sharing is always desirable but difficult to obtain. Patrons, as the book reveals, can in fact be reluctant to seek burden-sharing, and attempts to pass defense costs to allies can often be successful. At a time when skepticism of alliance benefits remains high and global power shifts threaten longstanding pacts, The Burden-Sharing Dilemma recalls and reconceives the value of burden-sharing and alliances.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction: Why Is Burden-Sharing a Contentious Issue in US Alliances? -- Chapter 1 The Strategic Logic of Coercive Burden-Sharing -- Chapter 2 “A Legitimate Role in the Defense of the Alliance, but on a Leash” West German Burden-Sharing, 1961–1974 -- Chapter 3 “Between Scylla and Charybdis” Japanese Burden-Sharing, 1964–1976 -- Chapter 4 “They Live at Our Sufferance” South Korean Burden-Sharing, 1964–1980 -- Chapter 5 “Is Iceland Blackmailing Us?” Icelandic Burden-Sharing, 1949–1960 -- Conclusion: The Enduring Challenges of Burden-Sharing in US Alliances -- Appendix Selected US Economic Statistics, 1950–1980 -- Notes -- References -- Index