Understanding International Security Relationships

1
Understanding International Security Relationships
2
Anarchy and Hierarchy Under Anarchy

• Although the international system is widely
  thought to be anarchic, it is incorrect to assume
  that all of the politically interesting
  relationships are also anarchic.
• Realism and liberalism suggest that cooperation
  in the security realm is anarchic in the sense
  that each party to the relationship possesses
  full authority to make its own decisions.
• Alliances
• Collective security.

3
Security cooperation

• Historically, there the relationships among
  states and other political organizations have
  evidenced varying degrees of hierarchy.
• E.g., Soviet control over Eastern Europe U.S.
  occupation of Iraq.
• The degree of hierarchy in security relationships
  is determined by the degree to which parties have
  given up their authority to control their own
  destinies.

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What are security relationships?

• Security refers to the ability to ability to
  protect oneself from the risk of death or severe
  impairment.
• Security also refers to the ability to accumulate
  and allocate wealth free from external coercion.

5
Types of security relationships

• Security relationships exist on a continuum from
  the most anarchic to the most hierarchic
  relationships.
• Anarchy
• Alliance
• Sphere of influence
• Protectorate
• Informal Empire
• Empire
• Hierarchy

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Alliances

• Alliances examples of security cooperation in
  which all of the parties to the agreement retain
  full decision making authority.
• NATO
• Article 5 invoked after 9/11 when each member of
  the alliance voted to approve.
• Made up of independent militaries that are
  organized under joint command.
• Alliances provide security through deterrence.

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Spheres of influence

• Subordinate state is restrained from entering
  into security relationships with third parties.
• Latin America is U.S. sphere of influence.
• U.S. policy makers have long considered it
  inappropriate for other states to operate in the
  region without U.S. approval.

8
Protectorates

• Subordinate state cedes decision making authority
  over foreign policy to the dominant state.
• Delegation from protected state to protector.
• Afghanistan in 1879 is the classic protectorate.
• Amir agreed to leave the control of his foreign
  relations to the British, who agreed to stay out
  of Afghanistans domestic affairs.

9
Informal Empire

• Subordinate state cedes control over foreign
  policy and some areas of domestic policy to
  dominant state. Subordinate state retains some
  claim to sovereignty.
• U.S.S.R. had informal empire in Eastern Europe
  during the Cold War.
• Brezhnev doctrine stated that Soviets could
  intervene in the affairs of Eastern European
  states.

10
Empire

• Subordinate state cedes control over foreign and
  domestic policy to dominant state. Subordinate
  state relinquishes sovereignty completely.
• Roman Empire picked the leaders that ruled in
  its territorial holdings.

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What explains variation in security cooperation?

• Political Scientist David Lake (Entangling
  Relations) argues that three variables explain
  differences in security cooperation.
• Joint production economies
• Expected costs of opportunism
• Governance costs

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Joint Production Economies

• Determine the gains from pooling resources and
  efforts with others.
• Producing security can be very expensive.
  Cooperating with others can lower the costs of
  creating security by spreading them across a
  number of actors that must pay them.
• Long-range bombers used in WWII required
  refueling stations to reach their intended
  targets.

13
Costs of Opportunism

• Answers the question how dangerous is it if my
  (our) partner cheats the agreement?
• The more relationally specific assets are, the
  more costly opportunism.
• Key naval base.
• The higher the costs of opportunism, the greater
  the pressure for hierarchy.

14
Governance costs

• The desirability of hierarchy is defined by its
  cost. The more expensive hierarchical relations
  are, the less attractive they become.