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Dangerous Alliances: Proponents of Peace, Weapons of War

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"Dangerous Alliances: Proponents of Peace, Weapons of War" by Patricia Weitsman provides an insightful look into the behavioral dynamics of military alliances. Weitsman argues that the key to understanding cohesion of alliances is to look at the internal bilateral dyads (France-Germany, Germany-France). By looking at each relationship, we can see, on a detailed view, how cohesion is achieved - or not achieved. This perspective is a departure from traditional alliance literature because it moves away from the assumptions that external threat and capability aggregation are the primary forces that drive cohesion.

Weitsman also emphasizes the importance of the level and source of threat to alliances. Based on these two factors, alliances demonstrate behaviors, which are classified as hedging, tethering, balancing, and bandwagoning. The evidence of tethering alliances, which Weitsman identifies in her case study, is particularly significant because such behavior - which is reflected by drawing close with an ally under conditions of moderate threat - can produce an alliance paradox, in that the existence of a tethering alliance could very well cause other states not included to form new alliances in opposition.

"Dangerous Alliances" also provides important insight into NATO's ability to persist and maintain cohesion after the Cold War. NATO's founding external threat no longer exists and the capability aggregation function of NATO has slowed down considerably. Since the alliances Weitsman uses in her case study are from the 19th and early 20th centuries, further analysis of modern alliances like NATO could further test Weitsman's theory on cohesion.