Theoretical Approaches to Patterns of Military Cooperation and Alliances

Why countries establish military alliance? What functions fulfill such security institutions? Are alliances designated to deal with external threats only or could they play additional roles? Which variables influence a military cooperation pattern adopted by allies? How do domestic politics, domestic political regime affect countries preferences regarding the cooperation pattern in military alliance? There are several theoretical approaches, which strive to address these questions. We start the discussion with the review of the existing literature referring to the main theoretical approaches in the field of international relations to the study of military cooperation and alliances: neorealism, constructivism, liberal/democratic peace theory and rational choice theory of institutionalism. As part of the discussion, for the purpose of examination of the cooperation pattern of the post-Soviet Eurasian military alliance, we present our theoretic framework based on the rational choice approach.