The Origins of Alliances

Walt, Stephen M.

doi:10.7591/9780801469992

Cited by 363 publications

(149 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

111

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…However, when it comes to the conflict entanglement, realism also faces severe problems, particularly as it can hardly explain why the two strongest of the four most powerful actors – the USA and Israel – ally with one of the two weaker ones – Saudi Arabia – against another of the two weaker ones: Iran (cf. Walt, , pp. 17–32).…”

Section: Attempts To Explain the Aggravated Conflicts Of Saudi Arabiamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Aggravated Struggle for Regional Power in the Middle East: American Allies Saudi Arabia and Israel versus Iran

Beck

2020

Global Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The present contribution first describes the aggravated Middle Eastern power competition in the 21st century, thereby emphasizing two aspects: the concentration of participants in the regional power game to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Iran, including shifts in regional power distribution; and the recent trend of entanglement of the Israeli–Iranian conflict with that between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Second, it contributes to an explanation of these developments by discussing the explanatory power of approaches based on three paradigms: primordialism, rationalism, and social constructivism. It is shown that a rationalist school of thought – structural realism – does not perform perfectly but nonetheless does rather well in explaining the aggravated power competition in the Middle East and the entanglement of the rivalries of each of the two American allies with Iran. At the same time, it is shown that the best way of bridging some of the explanatory gaps of structural realism in the case of Middle Eastern power politics is to epistemologically embed insights from rationalist schools of thought in a setting of a positivist version of social constructivism. On this fundament, the article explores a Copenhagen School‐inspired approach of securitization to better comprehend recent developments of aggravated Middle Eastern power conflicts.

show abstract

Section: Attempts To Explain the Aggravated Conflicts Of Saudi Arabiamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Aggravated Struggle for Regional Power in the Middle East: American Allies Saudi Arabia and Israel versus Iran

Beck

2020

Global Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the 1980s, scholars in IR began increasingly looking at intention as a source of threat, which helped to understand psychological components of threat perceptions in addition to material elements (Stein, ). According to Walt's (, p. 22) influential definition, military threat is a function of four elements: military power, offensive capability, geographical proximity, and aggressive intentions.…”

Section: Interpretive Aspects Of Threatsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chinese Perceptions of Threats from the United States and Japan

Sinkkonen

Elovainio

2019

Political Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

People's threat perceptions play a role in influencing foreign policies towards perceived adversary countries. Earlier research has identified multiple components shaping mass‐level threat perceptions including military power, adversary country's perceived intentions, and national identities. On the individual level, education, use of media, and interest in politics have been shown to influence threat perceptions. However, most studies on perceptions of security threats fail to include both contextual and individual‐level explanatory factors and to consider that different national threats may be constructed differently. This research bridges formation of threat perceptions on the individual level to wider societal processes and provides an empirical perspective to understanding threat perceptions among the educated section of the Chinese population. To analyze threat perceptions, students from leading Chinese universities (N = 771) took part in a survey in the autumn of 2011 and spring of 2012. Respondents who followed conventional media were more likely to perceive both the United States and Japan as threatening, and the effect of media consumption was particularly strong with regards to perceived threat from Japan. In addition, each threat perception was significantly associated with threat‐specific explanatory factors. Potential explanatory factors of threat perceptions were explored with linear regression models.

show abstract

“…2 The advantage of this strategy is to mitigate the domestic losses associated with internal balancing, the burden of establishing a credible deterrence posture being shared with others. If the fighting is expected to be costly, abandonment can take the form of buck-passing by which the ally leaves the burden of balancing and potential conflict to the country (Walt, 1987). A country tends to doubt its ally's security commitments and fear abandonment when the latter lacks the capabilities to fulfil its engagements or when the ally and the opponent maintain a constructive relationship.…”

Section: The National Security Equationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Japan is back”: Autonomy and balancing amidst an unstable China–U.S.–Japan triangle

Fatton

2018

Asia & Pacific Policy Stud

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Japan's security policy has changed dramatically in recent years. The country balances harder against China, and its armed forces are increasingly autonomous from their American counterparts. What explains Japan's growing autonomy and balancing tendency after decades of relative apathy? I argue that this new strategic orientation results from unprecedented doubts about the effectiveness of its traditional security policy amidst an unstable China-U.S.-Japan triangular relationship. Tokyo is increasingly uncertain about American security commitments in the face of a more assertive China. As both the alliance with the United States and the accommodation of China are becoming unsuitable strategies for guaranteeing national security, Japan reverts to a more autonomous and resolute posture. Japan's new security policy will have important consequences for the triangular relationship.

show abstract

The Origins of Alliances

Cited by 363 publications

References 0 publications

The Aggravated Struggle for Regional Power in the Middle East: American Allies Saudi Arabia and Israel versus Iran

The Aggravated Struggle for Regional Power in the Middle East: American Allies Saudi Arabia and Israel versus Iran

Chinese Perceptions of Threats from the United States and Japan

“Japan is back”: Autonomy and balancing amidst an unstable China–U.S.–Japan triangle

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About