ABSTRACT
Scholars of international politics focus a lot of attention on alliances. Realist theories portray alliances as prominent tools for balancing power (e.g. Morgenthau 1948: ch. 10; Rosecrance 1963). Collective security theories give pride of place to alliances because a collective security system cannot exist without one (e.g. Claude 1962: ch. 4). Liberal theorists care a lot about alliances, too, because some critics have argued that democratic exceptionalism is caused by a heightened proclivity of democracies to ally with each other (e.g. Russett 1993: ch. 4; Russett and Oneal 2001: ch. 3; Reiter and Stam 2002: ch. 4).
