The Burden-Sharing Dilemma - (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs) by Brian D Blankenship (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Presenting a theoretical explanation for why great power patrons pursue burden-sharing and why such efforts succeed or fail, this book challenges recent domestic frustration against a seeming lack of allied burden-sharing and offers insights into contemporary US alliance politics forefronted by conflicts and tensions in Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and elsewhere"--

Book Synopsis

The Burden-Sharing Dilemma examines the conditions under which the United States is willing and able to pressure its allies to assume more responsibility for their own defense. The United States has a mixed track record of encouraging allied burden-sharing--while it has succeeded or failed in some cases, it has declined to do so at all in others. This variation, Brian D. Blankenship argues, is because the United States tailors its burden-sharing pressure in accordance with two competing priorities: conserving its own resources and preserving influence in its alliances. Although burden-sharing enables great power patrons like the United States to lower alliance costs, it also empowers allies to resist patron influence.

Blankenship identifies three factors that determine the severity of this burden-sharing dilemma and how it is managed: the latent military power of allies, the shared external threat environment, and the level of a patron's resource constraints. Through case studies of US alliances formed during the Cold War, he shows that a patron can mitigate the dilemma by combining assurances of protection with threats of abandonment and by exercising discretion in its burden-sharing pressure.

Blankenship's findings dismantle assumptions that burden-sharing is always desirable but difficult to obtain. Patrons, as the book reveals, can in fact be reluctant to seek burden-sharing, and attempts to pass defense costs to allies can often be successful. At a time when skepticism of alliance benefits remains high and global power shifts threaten longstanding pacts, The Burden-Sharing Dilemma recalls and reconceives the value of burden-sharing and alliances.

Review Quotes

Blankenship's framework offers new and compelling insights for anyone serious about understanding the dynamics of burden-sharing in U.S. alliance politics. In such ways and more, Blankenship's book promises to enliven and advance crucial debates in great-power statecraft and alliance politics.

-- "Political Science Quarterly"

About the Author

Brian D. Blankenship is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Miami. Follow him on X @BrianDBlank.