Alliance dissolution: a constructivist approach

Abstract

Alliance dissolution is an understudied pattern in international politics. Independent studies by Walt, Leeds, and Snyder, within the realist tradition of international relations theory, have all touched on alliance dissolution as a caveat to alliance formation. Consistent with the realist tradition, change to the balance or distribution of power is viewed as the primary cause for alliance dissolution. Relying on a realist framework to scrutinize alliance formation may lead one to over-determine shifts in the balance or distribution of power, to the exclusion of other social conditions present during episodes of alliance dissolution. This study, relying on a constructivist approach, seeks to explicate the social process of alliance dissolution through utilizing a three-part framework of social conditions: military defeat, regime change, and political rivalry. Relying on this framework and the comparative case study method will show that alliance dissolution is a highly complex and dynamic social process, occurring over time, in which any possible combinations of identified social conditions contribute to a change in ontological security that provokes alliance dissolution. Importantly, the three social conditions scrutinized in this study are to be understood as sufficient conditions for alliance dissolution, no single condition is necessary for alliance dissolution to occur.