Event Date: October 31, 2023 - 4:30pm to 6:00pm
Location: FSS 4004, 120 University Private, University of Ottawa

Presented by CIPS

Kimball’s book advances North Atlantic Treaty Organization (henceforth, NATO) burden analysis through a decomposition of the political, financial, social, and defense burdens members take on for the institution. The overemphasis of committing a minimum of 2% of member state Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to defense spending, as a proxy indicator of alliance commitment does not properly reflect how commitments reduce risks should Article V be invoked through attack (i.e., 2% is a political & symbolic target adopted by Defense Ministers in 2006 at Riga). Considering defense burdens multi-dimensionally explains why some members overcontribute, as well as, why burden sharing negotiations cause friction among 30 diverse members with differing threats and risks. In creating a comprehensive institutional burden management model and focusing on risks to members, the book explores the weaknesses of major theories on the study and division of collective burdens and institutional assets. It argues that member risks and threats are essential to understanding how burdens are distributed across a set of overlapping institutions within NATO’s structure providing its central goods. The importance of the USA, as a defense underwriter for some, affects negotiations despite its absence from research empirically; new data permit testing the argument (Kavanaugh 2014). This book contributes conceptual innovation and theoretical analysis to advance student, researcher, and policymaker understanding of burden management, strategic bargaining, and defense cooperation. The contribution is a generalizable risk management model of IO burden sharing using NATO as the case for scientific study due to its prominence.

This event will take place in English.

Speaker:

Anessa L. Kimball (prof/they/iel) is a professor of political science, director of the Centre for International Security (CSI) at the École supérieure d’études internationales at Université Laval as well as co-director of two themes for the Canadian Defense and Security Network (CDSN)-Security; Climate security & NATO. Kimball completed graduate studies at Binghamton University, SUNY with specializations in international and comparative politics (MA & PhD). For over two decades, Dr. Kimball has used quantitative methods and rational institutionalist approaches to examine the institutional design of defense and security cooperation arrangements and defense burden sharing alongside qualitative approaches. Their research on informal defense agreements and formal defense alliances is published in scientific journals, such as the Journal of Peace Research, European Politics and Society, Journal of Transatlantic Studies among others. Their book on NATO burden sharing titled, Beyond 2% – NATO partners, institutions & burden management: Concepts, risks & models, was released with Palgrave Macmillan. Professor Kimball’s next project offers a comparative study of NATO Centres of Excellence as collective goods with the support of a MINDS grant for the CDSN. This project directly informs the governments initiative to collaboration in the establishment and hosting of Climate Change and Security COE (CCASCOE). From July 2023, Kimball is appointed as a visiting Senior Researcher at the Faculty of Economics & Administration of the Univ. of Pardubice in Czechia to advance the project through field work at several Centres located in Central & Eastern Europe.

Chair:

Benjamin Zyla is full professor in the School of International Development & Global Studies at the University of Ottawa where he directs the ‘Peacebuilding and Local Knowledge network (PLKN) and is the co-director of the Fragile States Research Network (FSRN). A political scientist by training, his work has focused on peacebuilding in fragile and conflict affected societies, post- conflict reconstruction, collective action problems of international (security) organizations, and qualitative methods. He has held teaching and research positions at Harvard University; NATO Defence College; Institute for Advanced Study, Konstanz University; École Normale Supérieure de Lyon; and Stanford University.