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Alliances & BOP

Alliances are formed based on realist principles of self-interest and balancing against threats. States will cooperate through alliances when a common threat is perceived, in order to increase their combined military capabilities and deter or defend against aggression. However, alliances also carry disadvantages because they can provoke counter-alliances, draw in neutral parties, and require controlling allied behavior to prevent recklessness. From a realist view, states should ultimately rely only on themselves and not consider any allies as permanent.

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102 views

Alliances & BOP

Alliances are formed based on realist principles of self-interest and balancing against threats. States will cooperate through alliances when a common threat is perceived, in order to increase their combined military capabilities and deter or defend against aggression. However, alliances also carry disadvantages because they can provoke counter-alliances, draw in neutral parties, and require controlling allied behavior to prevent recklessness. From a realist view, states should ultimately rely only on themselves and not consider any allies as permanent.

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ASMA ASLAM
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Alliances & BOP

It is the existence of enemies that gives rise to the need for allies, and it is for the
advantageous conduct of fighting that alliances are formed.
Steven Rosen – realist policy maker
“One has to behave as a friend and a foe according to the situation” Thucydides –
Realist
·         Choice are made on complex geostrategic playing field
·         Game are played by actors unequal in strength, but similar needs
Liberalist Realist

Alliances require agreements in order to Dynamics of alliance formation and decay


cooperate and its impact on global security
Emphasis on self sacrifice for mutual Realists picture alliances
gain as temporary and opportunistic
agreements to cooperate
States form alliances if their immediate Parties join to compete with and to check
interest is not realized the   dangerous ambitions of others
Maximize their long term collective Military alliances are forged when the
interests parties perceive that the advantages of an
alliance outweigh the disadvantage

Realism maintains that alliances are the mechanism by which a “balance of power”
can be maintained to prevent an aspiring hegemon from waging imperial wars to
achieve world domination.

·         BOP is affected by alliance politics in theory

Warfare is not a question of brute strength, but rather of winning and losing friends

REALIST INTERPRETATIONS OF ALLIANCES IN WORLD POLITICS

“An alliance (or alignment) is a formal (or informal) commitment for security cooperation
between two or more states, intended to augment each member’s power, security, and/ or
influence”
Liberalist perspective
·         War represents the failure of diplomacy
·         The failure of countries to resolve their differences through cooperative negotiations
to reach compromises
Realist perspective
·      Countries’ interests as best served by either unilaterally arming themselves sufficiently
to contain an emergent threat
·      Or combining their strength with the other threatened states in an alliance to contain
and combat the common danger alliances predictably come into being when two or
more states face a common security threat
·      By acquiring allies, states increase their mutual military capabilities. When facing a
common threat, alliances provide their members with the means of reducing their
probability of being attacked (deterrence), obtaining greater strength in case of attack
(defense), and precluding their allies from alliance with the enemy (Snyder 1991).

Downside (disadvantage) and counsel against forming alliances:

a.       States “should have no eternal allies and no perpetual enemies.”


b.      Their only duty is to follow their interests and whenever possible to rely on self-help
by depending only on their own state for defense, because under anarchy no state can
really count on allies to come to its defense if attacked.
c.       The realist tradition advises states not to take a fixed position on temporary
convergences of national interests and, instead, to forge alliances only to deal with
immediate threats.
Many realists advise states against forming alliances for defense, basing their fears on
five fundamental flaws:
1)      Alliances enable aggressive states to combine military capabilities for war.
2)      Alliances threaten enemies and provoke the creation of counter alliances, which
reduces the security for both coalitions.
3)      Alliance formation may draw otherwise neutral parties into opposed coalitions.
4)      Once states join forces, they must control the behavior of their own allies to
discourage each member from reckless aggression against its enemies, which would
undermine the security of the alliance’s other members.
5)      The possibility always exists that today’s ally might become tomorrow’s enemy.

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