Critically examine the proposition that small allies have ‘exploited’ large allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Comment on the proposition that prospective gains for producer groups prove more important than assessment of gains to nation states when explaining international collaboration?
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) expanded by three new members in 1999 and thus now has nineteen members. Although most people view this to be a benefit for the future of NATO as it should enhance their strength and credibility there are those who view that it will lead to further exploitation in defence budget sharing and an allocative efficiency. It is thought that due to issues such as Globalisation the world is becoming more interlinked with organisations such as NATO and the UN comprising of more and more members. It is feared that this expansion will lead to problems with free riders taking advantage of the ever-increasing availability of the public goods offered by organisations such as NATO. There is also a case that producer groups within member countries benefit more than the actual nation states as the benefits to them are much more assured and accessible. Politicians are an example of a group, which can benefit greatly from international collaboration, as it is a tool, which can help them, gain re-election.
The first real concerns over the economics of alliances were raised in Mancur Olson and Richard Zeckhauser their writings in 1966. This raises the point that in international institutions such as NATO the smaller allies are relying on the larger allies to pay the vast amount of the defence budget and thus free riding, this became known as the exploitation hypothesis. Sandler and Hartley point out a clear example of this exploitation, as in 1970 the USA contributed 75% on NATO’s defence spending with the next closest allies which included the UK, France and Germany only contributing 6%. The exploitation becomes evident when you discover that the USA only received 35% of NATO’s defence benefits. Olson and Zeckhauser felt that the NATO members would never be able to gain allocative efficiency under the system they were using for defence contributions.
Olson and Zeckhauser developed a test for the exploitation hypothesis this was done by dividing military expenditure by GDP and then adjusting by the ability to pay. Then those states paying a disproportionate amount of their GDP were viewed to have a heavy defence burden on them.
This book showed NATO as being an organization that is very unorganized. It came across as though the countries involved did not respect each other’s thoughts and opinions. It dwells on the mistakes made by countries for example the United States, various other European countries. It made it seem as though NATO was in conflict within each other making the organization as a whole seem incapable of compromise and the defence of anything. At many points NATO wanted to vote the United States out of the organization but this obviously never happened. At one point it was a problem “about the possibility of being dominated and ultimately overwhelmed by too close an association with the United States” (pg.30) for Canada and their relationship.
The author doesn’t forget to mention the relationship between USA and NATO. He thinks that Americans welcome NATO as a weapon for America’s affairs, not of the world’s. In his final words, it is suggested that either Europe should invite USA to leave NATO or Europe should expel America from it.
At the NATO Prague Summit of 21-22 November 2002, member nations agreed to make changes to ensure that the alliance remained a central mechanism for meeting its members' security needs. This involved expanding the organization with new members, enhancing relationships with NATO's partner countries and giving the alliance new capabilities. Canada has participated in every NATO mission since the alliance's creation. In recent years Canada has funded about 5.9 per cent of NATO’s
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance of 26 countries from North America and Europe committed to fulfilling the goals of the North Atlantic Treaty signed on April 4 1949. The fundamental goal of NATO is to safeguard the freedom and security of its member countries by political and military means. NATO links North America and Europe by providing a forum in which the United States, Canada and European countries can consult together on security issues of common concern and take joint action in addressing them.
In the 1950s, French insecurity feelings forced the state to strengthen its military and presumed Germany as their potential enemy. The state decided not to join the European Defence Community (EDC); where Britain and United States excluded, to stay away from its former archenemy. In other hand, the members of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO); particularly the hegemons US and Britain provided guarantees as the security providers to European in against potential German aggression. The guarantee triggered the French National Assembly to...
International organizations such as NATO and the UN are essential not only for global peace, but also as a place where middle powers can exert their influence. It is understandable that since the inception of such organizations that many crises have been averted, resolved, or dealt with in some way thro...
The importance of the alliance system that developed in Europe in the decades before World War I as a cause for it is still an important topic of debate and argument between modern historians. Some argue that the alliance system was a direct cause of the outbreak of war between all major countries in Europe while other historians prefer to state that the alliance configuration we observe before the war started was simply a symptom of the conflicts and disagreements, fears and envies that had been accumulating since the Bismarck system of alliances collapsed, and even before then. This last opinion is becoming more accepted as the one that describes the true importance of the actual alliance system as a cause of the war. In order to determine the importance of the alliance system as a cause for the war we must first explore the origins of these alliances. We will take high-point of the Bismarck system in 1878 as our starting point as the Franco-Prussian war is a key factor for the development of this system.
Kugler, Richard L. 1995. “Defence Program Requirements”. In NATO Enlargement: Opinions and Options, Jeffrey Simon (Ed), Washington D.C. National Defence University Press, Fort McNair, 184-207.
The United Nations and NATO are two organizations in this world that are working extremely hard to accomplish their goals, one step at a time. Maybe someday, the world will be a peaceful place and well have the United Nations and The North Atlantic Organization to thank for it.
The Cold War did not directly involve Europe, but Europe and its various states were key players and key sources of tension between the two great powers, the USSR and the United States of America. The dates of the beginning and end of the Cold War are debated but 1947-1991 is generally agreed upon. In this paper, I will attempt to outline the events of the Cold War which were relevant to Europe and how this affected European integration and relations. ‘Integration’ here refers to the process of transferring powers of decision-making and implantation from national to supranational level. Europe was weakened after World War Two, especially in contrast with the USSR and the USA. Traditional European hegemony was at an end and Europe had to find a new dynamic without becoming involved in conflict with the two new superpowers.
Europe has been militarily weak since World War II, but it remained unnoticed because of the unique geopolitical context of the Cold War: it was the strategic pivot between the United States and the Soviet Union. With the "new Europe", in 1990s, everybody agreed that Europe will rest...
NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance between the two continents of Europe and America which is formed to safeguard the peace and security developing a link among t...
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is a regional security based organization. This organization is unique in many ways and has been contributing to the security of its members and neighbors since 1975. The OSCE has had a busy history from the Cold War and beyond. With the end of the Cold War major shifts have come about in the area of international security that this organization primarily deals with. The OSCE is now facing a new era where it needs to convince its members that it still has a role to play.
Curtis, B., & Linser, W. (2004). NATO and EU Enlargement: Challenges for the New Europe . University of Washington. Retrieved December 10, 2013, from: http://jsis.washington.edu/cwes/file/nato_and_eu_curriculum.pdf
According to Pease (2012), an international organization are conceived as formal institutions whose members are states and these are divided into two sub-groups called intergovernmental organizations (IGO) and non-governmental organizations (NGO). An IGO consists of states that voluntarily join, contribute financially, and assist in the decision making process. All of their members’ resolves, structures, and administrative protocols are clearly outlined in the treaty or charter. An example of an IGO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). First, all IGOs comes from an established government which can be further categorized by rules of membership which qualifies NATO because it is an alliance of about 30 members from North America and Europe. Secondly, IGOs can have limited participation in membership or restricted membership which qualifies NATO because this is a security agreement and it limits its involvement by confining it to an amalgamation of specific governmental, geographical, and martial considerations. Thirdly, IGOs are categorized by their purpose meaning the member can be multi or general purpose organization and they can take on any global issue (Pease, 2012). This qualifies NATO because over the years the organization has participated in several international war related issues such as the Korean War and the Cold War. Most recently, NATO, for the first time in history had to engage Article 5 of the treaty after the 9/11 attacks in New York City and the no-fly zone in the country of Libya.