Book Review: Dangerous Alliances: Proponents of Peace, Weapons of War

• Author: Elizabeth Edwards Spalding
• DOI: 10.1177/0010414004269831
• Published date: 01 December 2004
• Date: 01 December 2004
• Subject Matter: Articles

Patricia A. Weitsman, DangerousAlliances: Proponents of Peace,Weapons of War.

Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004. 256 pp. Cloth, $49.50.

DOI: 10.1177/0010414004269831

Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, Claremont McKenna College

“Military alliances shape worlds. They embody the patterns of conflict andco

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operation in international politics; they drive those constellations as well.” Withthat

ambitious, evenaudacious, opening, PatriciaA. Weitsmantakes up the “alliance para-

dox” in international relations (IR) theory: Although alliances are formed to depress

either high or low levelsof threat, theyunintentionally increase the prospects for war.

For Weitsman, the alliance paradox is a direct consequence of the security dilemma

propounded by neorealists.

Weitsman’sDangerous Alliances: Proponents of Peace, Weapons of War divides

into theoretical and practical halves. On the theoretical side, she notes that the litera-

ture on alliances emphasizes external threats—states balancing against others outside

of their alliance—and capability aggregation—states addingothers’ power capabili-

ties to their own within an alliance—to the exclusion of other factors. She builds on

Stephen Walt’s (1987) conclusions that states balance against threats rather than

power and that balancing is more frequent than bandwagoning and Paul Schroeder’s

(1976) claim that alliances, beyond their capability aggregation purpose, are tools to

manage allies. Classic works by Kenneth Waltz (1979) and Robert Jervis (1976,

1997) are also touchstones for Weitsman. What is missing in past writings, she con-

tends, is serious reflection on the inner dynamics of alliances and, consequently, an

overallapproach that addresses both the internal and external dimensions of alliances.

To fill the void,she aims to develop a theory that “explains both alliance formation

and cohesion from one theoretical vantage point” (p. 2).

The most useful and original aspect of this theory is her supplement to balancing

and bandwagoning, the basic categories of motivations for alliance formation and

cohesion at high threat levelsthat havelong been tied to traditional and structural real-

ism. Weitsman adds two behaviors at the lower end of the threat-level spectrum,

which she regards as more consistent with institutionalist than realist thinking: hedg-

ing, involvinglow commitment levels, modest cohesion, and low internal threats; and

tethering, which renames and adapts Joseph Grieco’sand Daniel Deudney’s concepts

of the binding mechanism (cited on pp. 22-23) to situations with variable commit-

ment levels, lowor no cohesion, and high internal threats. Also helpful and original is

her accent on discerning the discrete motivations driving two or more states to join an

alliance (p. 191).

To structure her analysis, Weitsman draws on the standard views of alliances

found in the IR theories of realism, rationalism, and institutionalism. Quickly drop-

ping rationalism, she purports to offer a fusion of realism—taking more from struc-

tural realism (or neorealism) than traditional realism—and liberalism (or institution-

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