Discounting the free ride
Alliances and Security in the Postwar World
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6270602 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Avery Goldstein (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1995 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 39-71 |
| Publication date | 1995-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Organization (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-8183 • E-ISSN: 1531-5088 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0020818300001570 |
| OpenAlex | W2111303564 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 22 |
| References cited | 59 |
The collective goods theory of alliances and neorealist theory yield conflicting expectations about the security policies of states. The former emphasizes the temptation to “ride free” on the efforts of others, while the latter emphasizes the incentives for self-help. In the cases of Britain, China, and France during the early cold war, the constraints identified by neorealist theory, reinforced by the advent of nuclear weapons, prevailed. Each discounted the value of the security benefits superpower partners could provide. The second-ranking powers' decisions to shoulder the burden of developing independent nuclear forces are at odds with collective goods arguments that portray especially strong temptations to ride free in the circumstances that prevailed at that time—an international system dominated by two superpowers, each possessing large nuclear deterrent arsenals that could easily be employed on behalf of allies. This analysis suggests that present efforts to discourage additional states from acquiring nuclear weapons by offering them international security guarantees are unlikely to succeed
Arms control · China · Collective security · Economics · Incentive · International relations · International trade · Law and economics · Microeconomics · National security · Nuclear weapon · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Superpower · Temptation · Defense, Military, and Policy Studies · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Nuclear Issues and Defense
Theories of Nuclear Proliferation
Voting in the UN General Assembly
Reassessing the public goods theory of alliances
Dansk-amerikanske relationer under Trump og Biden 2017–2025
Saudi Arabia and UAE in the Horn of Africa
Public Contestation and Policy Resistance
EU Member State Support to Ukraine
Influence through Absence in U.S. Counterinsurgency Interventions? Coercing Local Allies through Threats to Withdraw
Nato Burden-Sharing Redux
The lure of regional security arrangements
Riding the tide
Great Expectations
Atuação da Otan no pós-Guerra Fria
The likelihood of local allies free-riding
The U.S.- South Korea Alliance
A Decision Theoretic Model of Public Opinion
Credible Nuclear Security Commitments Can Backfire
Abandonment, Entrapment, and Neoclassical Realism in Asia
Exiting the Coalition
Explaining Wars of Choice
Gulliver Untied
When Do Leaders Free‐Ride? Business Experience and Contributions to Collective Defense
The illogic of American nuclear strategy
Nuclear blackmail and nuclear balance
Sino-Soviet Conflict, 1956-1961
Impurity of Defense
Burden Sharing, Strategy, and the Design of Nato
From Lin Biao to Deng Xiaoping
Deterrence and Defense
Politics Among Nations
Power and Insecurity
The Logic of Collective Action
The War Ledger
Sharing the Defense Burden Among Western Allies
An Economic Theory of Alliances
The Washington Declaration and the "Poor Relation"
China's Ballistic Missile Programs
The Case for Finite Containment
Nuclear Coercion and the Ending of the Korean Conflict
French Defense Planning-The Future in the Past
Atomic Diplomacy during the Korean War
"A "Wasting Asset
Threats, Assurances, and the Last Chance for Peace
Robust and affordable security
The British and French nuclear forces
Eisenhower, Dulles, and Dienbienphu
The British nuclear deterrent
The Covert French Connection
China and the Major Powers in East Asia
War and Peace
Strategic Nuclear Targeting
British Defense Policy
China's Evolving Strategic Doctrine
People's War under Modern Conidtions
Nato Burden Sharing and the Forces of Change
Theory of international politics
The Security Dilemma in Alliance Politics
The Strategic Triangle
Rational Deterrence in an Imperfect World
A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Nato
Alliances and Collective Goods
On the Economic Theory of Alliances
Commitment, Threat Perceptions, and Expenditures in a Defense Alliance
The theory of collective action and burden sharing in Nato
Chain gangs and passed bucks
Alliances and Asymmetry
Understanding Nuclear Proliferation
Politics Among Nations
Nuclear blackmail and nuclear balance
China's Strategic Posture and the Great-Power Triangle
China's Quest for Independence. Policy Evolution in the 1970s
| Unique citing works | 22 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,79 |
| Citation span | 1998 - 2025 (28) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 22 |