An alliance is when two or independent states’ official representatives sign a formal written contract in agreement to their roles during a military conflict. The agreement can be either to help their partner during military conflict, remain neutral during military conflict, abstain from military conflict, or to consult and cooperate during international crises that create the potential for military conflict. There are five different types of alliances, defensive, offensive, neutrality, nonaggression, and consultation. Mutual defense agreements are if one member is attacked by an opponent, the alliance members will aid with military defense. Offensive agreements is. “promises of active military cooperation in instances other
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To those who believe in balance and power, their incentive of joining an alliance is increased national security. By combining the capabilities of the allies, they will need to produce and buy fewer weapons. An alliance is a good way for them to protect themselves just in case of any possible attacks or threats. Then there is the idea of balancing, where states join the weaker side to fight against a dominant, strong state. However, there are those who choose to do the opposite, and bandwagon: joining the stronger side to share their dominance and power. According to Stephen M. Walt’s (1987) Power of Threat Theory, a state alliance’s actions are determined by the threat to perceive from other states, instead of power. States also join military alliances because they seek favorable tradeoff for both security and autonomy. States hope to maintain preferred aspects of their status quo from changing, with security. Examples would be, maintaining a certain trade agreement or keeping borders. With autonomy, states have power over themselves to seek the ability to alter areas in the status quo, or pursue more beneficial …show more content…
Alliances do promote deterrence, especially when it is most needed, and states do form alliances to achieve successful deterrence. An example of this was during the Cold War in 1949, the Soviet Union was trying to further their Communist expansion and creating nuclear weapons to target the United States. The United States and eleven Western Nations ( France, Denmark, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Iceland, Norway, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Great Britan) formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was signed on, April 04, 1949. They joined military forces. An attack towards one of the countries would be an attack to all of them, therefore, they formed a defense alliance and would go to war for one another. Therefore, if the Soviet Union decided to attack a member, such as Italy, their consequence would be all of the other members would go to war with Italy. I would be seen as the Soviet Union attacking the entire NATO. Another one of NATO’s purposes was unifying and strengthening military powers, for Europe in a case of invasion. The Soviet Union and its affiliated Communist nations (Eastern Europe) created a rival alliance called the Warsaw Pact, in
To those who believe in balance and power, their incentive of joining an alliance is increased national security. By combining the capabilities of the allies, they will need to produce and buy fewer weapons. An alliance is a good way for them to protect themselves just in case of any possible attacks or threats. Then there is the idea of balancing, where states join the weaker side to fight against a dominant, strong state. However, there are those who choose to do the opposite, and bandwagon: joining the stronger side to share their dominance and power. According to Stephen M. Walt’s (1987) Power of Threat Theory, a state alliance’s actions are determined by the threat to perceive from other states, instead of power. States also join military alliances because they seek favorable tradeoff for both security and autonomy. States hope to maintain preferred aspects of their status quo from changing, with security. Examples would be, maintaining a certain trade agreement or keeping borders. With autonomy, states have power over themselves to seek the ability to alter areas in the status quo, or pursue more beneficial …show more content…
Alliances do promote deterrence, especially when it is most needed, and states do form alliances to achieve successful deterrence. An example of this was during the Cold War in 1949, the Soviet Union was trying to further their Communist expansion and creating nuclear weapons to target the United States. The United States and eleven Western Nations ( France, Denmark, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Iceland, Norway, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Great Britan) formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was signed on, April 04, 1949. They joined military forces. An attack towards one of the countries would be an attack to all of them, therefore, they formed a defense alliance and would go to war for one another. Therefore, if the Soviet Union decided to attack a member, such as Italy, their consequence would be all of the other members would go to war with Italy. I would be seen as the Soviet Union attacking the entire NATO. Another one of NATO’s purposes was unifying and strengthening military powers, for Europe in a case of invasion. The Soviet Union and its affiliated Communist nations (Eastern Europe) created a rival alliance called the Warsaw Pact, in