Alliances, Armed Conflict, and Cooperation: Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Evidence

Sprecher, Christopher; Krause, Volker

doi:10.1177/0022343306065881

Cited by 68 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(47 reference statements)

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“…One is the Correlates of War (COW) Formal Interstate Alliance Data Set (Gibler & Sarkees 2004). This is perhaps better known than the second source: the Alliance Treaty Obligations and Provisions (ATOP) project (Leeds 2005; Sprecher & Krause 2006). However, whereas COW provides data only up to 2000, ATOP alliance data are available to 2003.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The friend of my enemy is my enemy: International alliances and international terrorism

Plümper

Neumayer

2009

European J Political Res

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Terrorism is an instrument for groups that cannot achieve their political goals legally. One important strategic function of terrorism is to weaken the government -either directly by attacking representatives or supporters of the government or indirectly by causing a political response, which is unpopular among the population. Often, however, political stability of the home government is buttressed by foreign powers. In this case, the terrorists can have a strategic interest in attacking nationals of these foreign countries. This paper analyzes this logic by looking at international alliances as a proxy for international support. If the friend of my enemy is my enemy, then terror entrepreneurs, which seek to overthrow their home country's government (the enemy), may find it attractive to target nationals of the foreign allies of their country (the friends of the enemy). Our theory predicts that attacking nationals of a foreign ally is particularly attractive if this ally is militarily more powerful than the home country. Moreover, the combined effect of alliance and relative power differentials becomes stronger the more democratic the ally and becomes weaker the more democratic the terrorists' home country. We find empirical support for our hypotheses in an analysis of a directed country dyad sample of international terrorism. 2 IntroductionWhy do terrorists from one country target nationals of another country? The fast growing literature on terrorism, which has focused on the root causes of terrorism (Abadie 2006), is surprisingly ill-equipped to answer this question. On a theoretical level, research has neglected the impact of links between the terrorists' home country and the victims' country on patterns of international terrorism. This has translated, on the empirical side, into studies that aggregate acts of terror at the country level (of the terrorists or the victims or the location of terror). These studies have generated insightful results. Yet, by design they are not capable of analyzing why terrorists from one country target nationals from some foreign countries, but not from others. 1Starting from the assumption that terror groups want to gain a significant political influence on their country of origin or the broader region (Crenshaw 1981(Crenshaw , 2001Pape 2003Pape , 2005Kydd and Walter 2006), terror groups should mainly attack domestic targets. However, some governments borrow strength from more powerful allied foreign powers. Citizens from countries that stabilize the government in the terrorists' home country may then become a derivative, strategic target of terror attacks. If the friend of my enemy is my enemy, then terrorist groups, which seek to overthrow their country's government (the "enemy"), will find it attractive to target nationals of the foreign supporters of their country (the "friends of the enemy"). 1The only directed country dyad studies of terrorism we are aware of are Krueger and Laitin (2008) and Blomberg and Rosendorff (2006). 3In this paper, we study one important w...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The friend of my enemy is my enemy: International alliances and international terrorism

Plümper

Neumayer

2009

European J Political Res

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“…Research design Although China obviously treats the partnership network as an alternative to alliances, alliance study in the literature still offers a stepping stone for our examination of China's motivation in building its own network of partnership. Scholars have examined a wide range of topics from alliance formation, internal configuration of alliances, relationship between alliances and war, to alliances' effect on trade (Sprecher and Krause, 2006). Discussions in the literature can generally be understood as concerning two questions: how alliances come to existence and how they perform.…”

Section: Building Partnership Without Alignmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

China’s emerging partnership network: what, who, where, when and why

Quan

2019

ITPD

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore and test the motivation behind the evolution of China’s vast network of partnerships around the globe since the end of the Cold War. Design/methodology/approach After combing through 24 types of partnerships with 78 countries, the authors empirically tested four hypotheses using data from Correlates of War and World Bank. Findings The analysis indicates that China’s choice to build such an elaborate network is not random. On the contrary, it is largely determined by three factors: the need to counter the US pressure; the necessity of maintaining peace and stability along its borders and achieving the long-term goal of modernization. Originality/value The research is among the first attempts to comprehensively test the possible motivations behind China’s partnership building efforts and provides a stepping stone for analyzing this important aspect of China’s foreign policy.

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“…The two main areas of focus concern the formation of alliances and the impact of alliances on war (do alliances make war more or less likely?). This literature has already been expertly sum marized elsewhere (Sprecher and Krause 2006;Weitsman 2010), so the presentation be low must be considered as a general roadmap and needs to be completed with more gran ular overviews. However, this is a deliberate choice that follows from our preference for concentrating on the evolution of contemporary alliances and coalitions in Sections 44.3 and 44.4 of this chapter.…”

Section: Classical Research On Alliancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alliances

Rynning¹,

Schmitt²

2018

The Oxford Handbook of International Security

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This chapter provides an overview of the literature on alliances. It discusses the classical scholarship dealing with the formation of alliances and their impact on the international system, but also assesses trending debates on the relationship between alliances and, on the one hand, the maintenance of international order, and on the other, the nature of multinational military interventions. The study of alliances has traditionally focused on states and war, with alliances being a tool with which the former could manage the latter. In recent years, the field has widened, taking into account alliances’ evolving and contested relationship to both broader collective security institutions and narrower and supposedly more effective coalitions. As they change in character, alliances will continuously define the frontier between cooperation and conflict and be of central concern to security studies scholars.

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Alliances, Armed Conflict, and Cooperation: Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Evidence

Cited by 68 publications

References 44 publications

The friend of my enemy is my enemy: International alliances and international terrorism

The friend of my enemy is my enemy: International alliances and international terrorism

China’s emerging partnership network: what, who, where, when and why

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