Military Alliances and Coalitions: Going to War without France
Abstract
This paper examines American involvement in military alliances and coalitions. The research focuses on how history, foreign policy decisions, defense spending, and key allies have created and shaped the American military instrument of national power and multinational relationships. In 1939, the United States was not bound to any military treaty, nor did it have any troops stationed in a foreign country. Today, the United States is the world's only super power, with a worldwide military presence. The U.S. Army alone has 255,000 soldiers deployed in nearly 80 countries overseas. It is a member of several military alliances, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which are largely the legacy of post-World War II treaty agreements for regionally based collective security and Soviet Communist containment. Post-Cold War geopolitical changes have spawned a different breed of multinational military force -- the ad hoc coalition. The 1991 Gulf War ushered in the modern military coalition. Now, post-9/11, U.S. troops lead Multi-National Force-Iraq, a "coalition of the willing." With further geopolitical changes, increasing globalism, and the rise of nonstate actors and terrorism, the United States continues to look to multiparty, multinational forces, but in a different, unipolar context. This reframing to build military consensus beyond traditional alliance-based organizations to achieve foreign policy objectives is also necessitated in part by our partners' decreased military spending and willingness to fight. This paper summarizes the effects of U.S. history, foreign policy, defense spending trends, and multilateral relationships on U.S. military coalitions and makes recommendations on how best to proceed with multinational alliances and coalitions in a post-9/11 world.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 26, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA493833
Entities
People
- John V. Zavarelli
Organizations
- University of Texas at Austin