Dangerous Alliances Proponents of Peace, Weapons of War Patricia A. Weitsman |
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"Dangerous Alliances is an important book, and contributes greatly to our understanding of alliances and their impact on war and peace."—Political Science Quarterly "Weitsman offers a fine addition to the literature on alliance formation... her argument can account for many alliances that have generally escaped the attention of realists."—Journal of Politics "By building a bridge between realist, liberal, and institutionalist theories on the basis that each one only partially explains alliances, Weitsman offers an insightful, easy to read, and well-structured book..."—Canadian Journal of History/Annales canadiennes dhistoire "Weitsman's effort to consider alliances of mutual restraint in a 'balance of threat' context is both welcome and long overdue."—Perspectives on Politics "Weitsman considers alliance formation and, in a rich analysis of rationales, observes that states have joined alliances to contain fellow members who are potential adversaries... The analysis is sufficiently nuanced to provide a framework for contemporary issues, but the case studies are all taken from the run-up to World War I."—Foreign Affairs Military alliances drive international politics. They embody conflict and cooperation among states and shape the international political landscape. Despite the profound effect alliances have on the course of international politics, many gaps remain in our understanding of their formation, continuance, and cohesion. In this book, Patricia Weitsman introduces a comprehensive theory that unifies current ideas about alliances and examines the relationship between threat and alliance politics under conditions of both war and peace. Examining military alliances before and during World War I, Weitsman provides a new interpretation of the politics of the great powers of this period. She reveals that states frequently form alliances to keep peace among the allied countries, not simply to counter shared external threats. Though alliances may be perceived by others to present a unified and threatening front, countries often face significant threats from within their own alliances. It is this paradox that underscores Weitsman's theory: although alliances are frequently forged to sustain peace, they may, in fact, increase the prospects of war. 
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