When Dogs Wag their Tails: How Great Powers Patrons Manage their Belligerent Client Allies under Uncertainty (2021.08)
- Author : Dong Joon Park
- Publication : Journal of Peace and Unification
- Publisher : Ewha Institute of Unification Studies
- Volume : 11(3)
- Date : August, 2021
Abstract: How do great powers manage their alliances with smaller states? Despite the risk of en-trapment, crises may also be perceived as opportunities to gain private information about others. Based on this logic, I argue that both status quo and revisionist powers uncertain about the system either welcome or condone belligerent behavior by their smaller allies and thus loosely manage their relationships. Certain revisionist powers also consider crises beneficial due to this dynamic, but oversee the action of their protégés more closely to prevent it from interfering with their own strategy to revise the system. In contrast, certain status quo powers most closely control their client allies to prevent entrapment. In other words, uncertainty causes great powers to wag their tails.