Burden sharing, strategy, and the design of nato

TLDR: In this paper, the authors show that recent technological advancements in weapons, the policy of detente, and the strategic reorientation of NATO are increasing the relative importance of damage-limiting weapons, and that the resulting increases in excludable benefits and common-interest awareness permit NATO allies to share defense burdens more efficiently via markets according to benefits received.

Abstract: This study shows that recent technological advancements in weapons, the policy of detente, and the strategic reorientation of NATO are increasing the relative importance of damage-limiting weapons. The resulting increases in excludable benefits and common-interest awareness permit NATO allies to share defense burdens more efficiently via markets according to benefits received than was the case in the 1960s. The statistical results support our hypothesis that the distribution and nature of benefits, not industrial size, determine the relative burdens of the allies. Statistical tests discriminate between the joint product and deterrence models. War is a matter not so much of arms as of expenditure, through which arms may be made of service. (Thucydides, History I)