Effect of Perceived Home Country Susceptibility to Third-Country Political Pressure on International Alliance Structure

This paper investigates the role of perception of home country susceptibility to international political influences in the structure of international alliances. We study the effect of international economic sanctions imposed unilaterally by one country on another and how those sanctions may alter decisions to abandon equity alliance structures in favor of non-equity contractual forms. Are empirical findings from 496 alliances find support for our hypotheses and emphasize a triple interaction effect which includes the joint moderation of the decision for alliance structure by balance of trade and the volume of trade between countries relative to total size of the economy.