Mutual Binding: Central Mechanism of Alliance Management

    Abstract: This article mainly considers the interactive dynamics at play between allies in the management of alliances. Through induction and deduction, the author finds that the main mechanism maintaining and managing alliances is mutual binding. Alliances can be divided into two types according to relative power: symmetric alliances and asymmetric alliances. Based on objectives of the parties to an alliance, they can be divided into defensive and offensive alliances. In this way, there are at least four “ideal types” of alliances. Generally speaking, for symmetric alliances, if the objectives of the allies are the same, the mechanism of mutual restrain will function properly, and the alliance can be managed with relative ease; should the objectives be different, the converse is true. For asymmetric alliances, mutual restraint functions, and the alliance is not difficult to manage except when the more powerful state is a defensive realist state, while the weaker state is an offensive realist state. The article uses the cases of the alliance between France and Russia before World War I, the alliance between China and the USSR at the end of the 20th century, and the alliance between the United States and Japan since the 50s to test the proposed theory of alliance management.

    Author: Su Ruolin is a MA student in the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University；