America’s Allies and War: Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq

By Jason W. Davidson, UMW associate professor of political science and international affairs

America’s Allies and War by Jason W. Davidson, a multiple-case-study analysis of transatlantic burden-sharing, provides a unique explanation of why Britain, France, and Italy provide or refuse military support for U.S.-led armed forces. Using 60 original interviews with top policymakers and analysts, Davidson explores allies’ decisions during conflicts in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. From the cases explored, Davidson finds that “neoclassical realist factors” such as alliance value, threat, prestige, and electoral politics better explain allies’ actions than “constructivist factors,” identified here as identity and norms. The book briefly covers Vietnam, Lebanon, the Persian Gulf War, and Somalia. Davidson, the author of Origins of Revisionist and Status-quo States and numerous scholarly articles that have appeared in journals such as Contemporary Security Policy, Nonproliferation Review, and Security Studies, ends the book with recommendations for increasing future allied military support.

− Published by Palgrave MacMillan, March 2011