Event Date: October 5, 2016 - 11:30am to 1:00pm
Location: FSS 6032, 120 University Private
Presented by CIPS, the International Theory Network (ITN)
How does the United States build multilateral military coalitions? The conventional wisdom advances that formal alliance structures guide the latter process: allies band together because they share threat perceptions, political ideology, norms and values. This article, however, suggests otherwise. It proposes that US-led coalition-building is first and foremost a diplomatic process influenced by bilateral and multilateral institutions other than formal alliances. The breadth of institutions matters because it allows accessing information on the potential coalition partner’s deployment preferences that are not only related to the security aspect of the operation but also its political and economic facets. In addition, diplomatic embeddedness offers linkage opportunities between military and non-military interests, which facilitates the construction of side-payments. Overall, diplomatic embeddedness thus affects the probability of a country joining a US-led coalition in important ways.
Marina Henke is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Northwestern University in Chicago (USA). Marina holds a Ph.D. in Politics and Public Policy from Princeton University, a Double-M.S.in Development Studies and International Political Economy from Sciences Po Paris and the London School of Economics and a B.A. (summa cum laude) in Economics, Politics and Latin American Studies from Sciences Po Paris. Marina has been a Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) (2011-2012). She also served as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA) and worked with the U.S. House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the German Foreign Office as well as NGOs in Mexico and Argentina. Marina’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the United States Institute of Peace, Princeton University, the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the Bradley Foundation, the Buffett Institute, the Kellogg Dispute Resolution Research Center, the French Air Force Academy among others. Marina’s research focuses on military interventions and peacekeeping. She investigates, in particular, three questions: Why do military interventions occur? How are coalitions-of-the-willing constructed? And what are the long-term political effects of military interventions? Her work has been published in International Peacekeeping and her book manuscript “Allies for Sale” is currently under review with Cornell University Press.
*Please note: Photos and/or video recordings of this event may be posted on the CIPS website, newsletter and/or social media accounts. This event is free and in English.