Abstract:Although great powers may forge ad hoc coalitions to attain their short-term goals, this does not diminish the role of long-term strategic alliances. The alliance theory has long become a separate strand of IR. However, most scholars have focused more on external rather than internal threats to account for alliance choices. The authors review the existing literature on the formation of alliances and, shifting the focus to the struggle for power between internal political actors, propose a theory that explains … Show more
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