Alliances in International Relations

First of all, I would like to explain that the meaning of alliance is two or more states making an official agreement about acting and making decisions on military actings. An official agreement is a key point in making an alliance. However, constructing that kind of relationship is important because sometimes states need to act together in affairs in the international sphere. One of the most significant alliances is NATO. From time to time, people and policymakers question NATO’s existence and its American hegemony over Europe, today we see that we need NATO for standing against Russian Federation’s aggressive actions. Besides, the not only reason is making alliances is not standing up against an enemy, there are lots of theories from different people. For instance, according to Kenneth Waltz, alliances are options for states to balance power and prevent another state from gaining power. Even though Stephen M. Walt’s theory is inspired by Kenneth Waltz’s theory, it is a bit different. 

According to Stephen M. Walt, an impartial state getting bigger or arming does not affect any state because is not a threat to any but, the arming of a sided state affects the balance of power. So it means that states’ situations and actions are important but ideologies that the states follow have more role in changing the balance of power. According to other significant theoreticians Stephen David, also states make alliances to protect their regimes in their domestic borders. One of the best examples of Egypt in 2012 – 2013 for that. 

Additionally, there are some key terms about alliance studies such as Buck – passing or Chain Ganging. 

Chain Ganging is that elevating probability of conflict among states because several states have joined alliances. NATO Article 5 would be the best example for this term. NATO Article 5 is that an attack on one member of NATO is an attack on all of its members. 

Buck–passing is the practice of blaming another state else for something rather than accepting the responsibility of the state who prefers to attack all the time (In that definition, all states are in the same alliances.).

Bandwagoning occurs when weaker states decide that the cost of opposing a stronger power exceeds the benefits. John Mearsheimer says that Bandwagoning is a strategy for the weak.

Also when you built alliances, you should socialize your staff with other states’ staff. You can run to operate your soldiers with your alliances’ soldiers etc. So ‘Socialization’ is a significant action to take for building strong alliance relationships.