ABSTRACT Since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) creation in 1949, Canada has been a consistent contributor to the Alliance but has frequently been criticized as a free rider. This article asks: what fuels this perception about Canada’s commitments to NATO? To answer this question, we introduce a typology of burden-sharing commitments inspired by the conceptual literature on power (hard, soft and smart) to explain why Canada’s role within NATO may be understated or even inaccurately portrayed. This framework also offers insights into Canada’s reputation at NATO. We show Canada’s contributions to NATO are more consistent than is usually acknowledged, though contextual factors significantly impact perceptions about those commitments. We also suggest strategies through which Canada can aspire to be a “smarter” contributor to NATO. The implication of our argument is to consider the spectrum of contribution types (with our typology) to reframe the nature of Alliance commitments and burden-sharing debates.

中文翻译：

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软贡献是硬承诺：北约和加拿大的全球安全议程

摘要 自北大西洋公约组织（NATO）于 1949 年成立以来，加拿大一直是该联盟的一贯贡献者，但经常被批评为搭便车者。本文询问：是什么助长了这种对加拿大对北约承诺的看法？为了回答这个问题，我们引入了一种受权力（硬、软和智能）概念文献启发的责任分担承诺类型，以解释为什么加拿大在北约中的角色可能被低估甚至不准确地描述。该框架还提供了对加拿大在北约声誉的见解。我们表明加拿大对北约的贡献比通常承认的更加一致，尽管背景因素会显着影响对这些承诺的看法。我们还提出了一些策略，通过这些策略，加拿大可以立志成为北约的“更聪明”的贡献者。我们的论点的含义是考虑贡献类型的范围（以及我们的类型学）以重构联盟承诺和负担分担辩论的性质。