Open AccessPower or Plenty? Economic Interests, Security Concerns, and American Intervention
Author(s) -
Fordham Benjamin O.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
international studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.897
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1468-2478
pISSN - 0020-8833
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2478.2008.00524.x
Subject(s) - alliance , intervention (counseling) , power (physics) , affect (linguistics) , economic security , political science , political economy , security studies , development economics , economics , economic growth , sociology , public administration , psychology , law , physics , quantum mechanics , psychiatry , communication
This paper evaluates the effect of economic interests and security concerns on American intervention in civil and international conflict. Generalizations about the relative importance of these considerations have played critical role in the historiography of American foreign relations. Although statistical analysis is well suited for evaluating such generalizations, quantitative researchers have devoted relatively little attention to the issue. Existing large‐n research has generally found that security concerns matter more, but has not considered how the economic and security concerns thought to affect intervention might also influence each other. These subsidiary relationships complicate efforts to assess the relative importance of these two influences on intervention. Evidence concerning intervention in international crises and civil wars indicates that, while alliance commitments and rival behavior have a greater immediate impact on American intervention, exports have an important indirect effect by shaping alliance commitments in the long run.