Table Of ContentUnipolarity and the Evolution of America’s
Cold War Alliances
Unipolarity and the
Evolution of America’s
Cold War Alliances
Nigel R. Thalakada
Policy Analyst in Defense and Security
palgrave
macmillan
© Nigel R. Thalakada 2012
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in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2012 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-34980-7 ISBN 978-1-137-01096-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137010964
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
For my family
Contents
List of Tables i x
Acknowledgments x
Introduction 1
The purpose of alliances 3
The end of the Cold War and the changing nature
of alliances 5
1 Management of Power 9
Alliances in unipolarity 9
Management of power: key characteristics 1 3
Security guarantee 1 4
Leveraging the superpower’s superior capabilities 15
Influencing the superpower’s exercise of power 16
Distributing the burden of maintaining
international security 17
Stifling the tendency to balance and maintaining
international leadership 18
Conclusion 19
2 The North Atlantic Treaty Organization 2 1
Cold War focus on balance of power 21
Post-Cold War focus on management of power 2 5
Operations 26
Capabilities and membership 28
P ost-9/11 operations 30
Post-9/11 capabilities and membership 37
US posture 4 1
The 2003 Iraq War 4 2
Conclusion 5 4
European security and defense policy 55
3 The US–Japan Alliance 63
Cold War focus on balance of power 63
vii
viii Contents
Post-Cold War focus on management of power 6 8
Operations 69
Policy and capabilities: the ‘normalization’
of Japanese defense posture 7 7
US posture 8 4
Conclusion 8 4
4 The US–South Korea Alliance 9 1
Cold War focus on balance of power 9 1
Post-Cold War focus on management of power 9 3
Operations 96
Capabilities 9 8
US posture 1 00
Conclusion 101
5 The Australia–New Zealand–US Alliance 1 04
Cold War focus on balance of power 1 04
Post-Cold War focus on management of power 1 08
Operations 1 11
Capabilities 114
US posture 1 17
Growing US rapprochement with New Zealand 117
Conclusion 1 23
Conclusion 128
Other US alliances 131
Thailand 132
Philippines 133
Singapore 1 36
The transition from George W. Bush to Barack Obama 1 37
The impact of the worldwide economic crisis 1 39
Notes 143
Bibliography 1 72
Index 193
Tables
1.1 Management of power characteristics of
alliances in unipolarity 1 4
2.1 NATO’s management of power characteristics 26
3.1 The US–Japan alliance’s management of power
characteristics 7 0
4.1 The US–South Korea alliance’s management
of power characteristics 9 6
5.1 ANZUS’s management of power characteristics 1 11
ix
Acknowledgments
The idea for this book was a long time in coming. It first occurred to
me during a hiatus from graduate school, years after I had begun my
studies. It gradually took shape as a dissertation in political science.
Although by that point I no longer had many of my former colleagues
and professors around with whom to discuss my ideas, their contri-
bution to my earlier education undoubtedly laid the foundation that
made this book possible. I am therefore intellectually indebted to
them even if they did not read or comment on any drafts of this
work. My good friend and former colleague David Yoon deserves a
special word of thanks for his encouragement to complete my disser-
tation even when I had grave doubts about ever finishing.
My most direct debt is owed to Professors Bruce Russett, Paul
Bracken, and Jolyon Howorth at Yale who graciously reviewed drafts of
my dissertation on which this book is based and provided comments.
Their advice was invaluable and greatly appreciated. I am also very
grateful to Christina Brian and Ellie Shillito at Palgrave Macmillan,
and to the anonymous reader who provided very constructive advice
in revising my dissertation as a book manuscript. Needless to say, I
bear sole responsibility for any remaining errors of fact or lapses of
analysis.
I have dedicated this work to my family – my parents, siblings, and
Cristina Cotelo Alejos – for their love and support through the years,
without which it would certainly never have been completed.
x
Introduction
This book is about the evolution of America’s alliances since the
end of the Cold War. Though each alliance has its unique origins
and history, they all began as creatures of the Cold War for the
specific purpose of containing the threat posed by Soviet-backed
communist expansionism. Since the end of the Cold War, all have
persisted and even adapted to changing strategic circumstances. As
this book will argue, all evince a similar pattern of moving beyond
the logic of balance of power to what is referred to as management
of power.
The implicit puzzle that this book seeks to address is the persis-
tence of America’s Cold War alliances even though their r aison d’être
has long since faded. Realist or neorealist accounts predict the even-
tual breakdown of alliances. In this vein, some analysts and scholars
have recently predicted that alliances will gradually lose place to a d
hoc “coalitions of the willing” as the vehicle of superpower’s vehicle
of choice for international security cooperation. 1 To account for
alliance persistence, one has had to look to beyond strictly realist
accounts, such as institutionalism or security communities, which
posit that alliances are sustained by common interests or identities
that arise through the process of cooperation rather than common
threats p er se.2 Thus, the literature on alliances has a bifurcated
quality to it between those who see alliances as having a continuing
role and those who see them as doomed to irrelevance.
This book seeks to bridge the gap by proceeding from the obser-
vation that while structural forces are not conducive to the creation
of new alliances and indeed favor more flexible forms of alignment,
1
