Alliances are receiving renewed attention in our increasingly insecure world. Today, we look at the history of alliances and the central alliance of today—NATO—is fundamentally different from previous efforts. Our central task is to explain how alliances can be more than the sum of their parts and to explore the credibility issues that come with trying to implement such agreements. 0:00 Alliances in the Spotlight 1:46 Outline 6:27 Why Studying Alliances Is Important 10:19 The Ad Hoc Coalition Era 16:12 The Integrated Militaries Era 20:45 The Political Era 26:15 The Entrapment-Abandonment Tradeoff 31:18 NATO’s Article 5 Provision 36:33 NATO’s Enlargement Policies 44:45 Tripwire Forces 47:33 Comparative Advantage in Arms Production 54:10 Economies of Scale 56:41 Strategic Complementarities 1:00:33 Collective Action Problems and Selective Abandonment 1:03:00 The Firefighter Problem 1:05
