ABSTRACT

The allocation of scarce resources is a grand strategic question – burden-sharing behaviour has clear effects on states’ ability to contribute to collective defence. Both NATO and the European Union encourage members not just to spend more on defence, but to focus those expenditures on equipment modernization and shared operational requirements. After NATO allies formally pledged to improve burden-sharing along these lines in 2014, and EU members followed in 2016, transatlantic debates on defence spending have become increasingly tense, particularly since 2017. What actually drives states’ choices to allocate resources to shared defence priorities? I operationalize transatlantic burden-sharing in line with NATO’s ‘Cash, Capabilities, and Contributions’ approach for a mixed-methods analysis of the burden-sharing behaviour of NATO’s Black Sea littoral states – Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey. Using a multi-method analytical approach, I find that national and particularly regional political economies drive burden-sharing choices more than geostrategy, at least in the current strategic environment.

摘要

稀缺资源的分配是一个宏大的战略问题——负担分担行为对国家为集体防御做出贡献的能力有明显的影响。北约和欧盟都鼓励成员国不仅在国防上花费更多，而且将这些支出集中在设备现代化和共享作战要求上。在北约盟国于 2014 年正式承诺改善这些方面的负担分担之后，欧盟成员国于 2016 年紧随其后，关于国防开支的跨大西洋辩论变得越来越紧张，尤其是自 2017 年以来。实际上是什么促使各国选择将资源分配给共同的国防优先事项? 我根据北约的“现金、能力、和贡献的方法对北约黑海沿岸国家——保加利亚、罗马尼亚和土耳其的负担分担行为进行混合方法分析。使用多方法分析方法，我发现至少在当前的战略环境中，国家特别是区域政治经济比地缘战略更能推动负担分担选择。