bandwagoning

Bandwagoning was coined by Quincy Wright in A Study of War (1942){{sfn|Wright|1942|p=136}} and popularized by Kenneth Waltz in Theory of International Politics (1979);{{sfn|Waltz|1979|p=126}} in his work, Waltz incorrectly attributes Stephen Van Evera with having coined the term.{{sfn|Schweller|1997|p=928}} Both Wright and Waltz employ the concept to serve as the opposite of balancing behaviour.

The belief that states will ally with a dominant power, as opposed to balance against it, has been a common feature among foreign policy practitioners. German Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz's "risk theory", for example, posited that if Germany built a formidable naval fleet, it could force the United Kingdom into neutrality or alliance with it by threatening to the latter's maritime supremacy.{{sfnm |1a1=Craig |1y=1978 |1pp=303–314 |2a1=Langer |2y=1953 |2pp=434–435 |3a1=Walt |3y=1985 |3p=7}}

According to Stephen Walt, "American officials have repeatedly embraced the bandwagoning hypothesis in justifying American foreign policy commitments." John F. Kennedy, for example, stated that "if the United States were to falter, the whole world... would inevitably begin to move toward the Communist bloc".{{sfnm |1a1=Brown |1y=1994|1p=217 |2a1=Walt |2y=1985 |2p=7}} Henry Kissinger suggested that states tend to bandwagon "if leaders around the world... assume that the U.S. lacked either the forces or the will... they will accommodate themselves to the dominant trend".{{sfn|Walt|1985|p=7}}{{cite book|author=Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, 97th Congress, 1st session|title=The Soviet Union and the Third World: Watershed in Great Power Policy|year=1977|publisher=US Government Printing Office|location=Washington, DC|pages=157–158|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w7vQAAAAMAAJ}}

Ronald Reagan endorsed the same sentiment when he said, "If we cannot defend ourselves [in Central America], we cannot expect to prevail elsewhere. Our credibility would collapse, our alliances would crumble and the safety of our homeland would be put at jeopardy."{{cite news|last=Reagan|first=Ronald|author-link=Ronald Reagan|title=President Reagan's Address to a Joint Session of Congress on Central America|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/28/world/president-reagan-s-address-on-central-america-to-joint-session-of-congress.html|accessdate=8 May 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=28 April 1983}}

{{Portal|Politics}}

• Bandwagon (disambiguation)
• Bandwagon effect (also describes the origin of the phrase)
• Finlandization

{{reflist|22em}}

{{refbegin|35em|indent=yes}}

• {{cite book

|last=Brown

|first=Seyom

|year=1994

|title=The Faces of Power: Constancy and Change in United States Foreign Policy from Truman to Clinton

|edition=2nd

|location=New York

|publisher=Columbia University Press

|isbn=978-0-231-09669-0

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Craig

|first=Gordon A.

|author-link=Gordon A. Craig

|year=1978

|title=Germany: 1866–1945

|location=Oxford

|publisher=Clarendon Press

|publication-date=1999

|isbn=978-0-19-822113-5

|url=https://archive.org/details/germany1866194500crai

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Langer

|first=William L.

|author-link=William L. Langer

|year=1953

|title=The Diplomacy of Imperialism

|location=New York

|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Mearsheimer

|first=John J.

|author-link=John Mearsheimer

|year=2001

|title=The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

|url=https://archive.org/details/tragedyofgreatpo00mear

|url-access=registration

|location=New York

|publisher=W.W. Norton and Company

|publication-date=2003

|isbn=978-0-393-07624-0

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Motin

|first=Dylan

|author-link=Dylan Motin

|year=2024

|title= Bandwagoning in International Relations: China, Russia, and Their Neighbors

|location=Wilmington

|publisher=Vernon Press

|isbn=978-1-64889-833-4

}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Schweller

|first=Randall L.

|author-link=Randall Schweller

|year=1997

|title=New Realist Research on Alliances: Refining, Not Refuting

|journal=American Political Science Review

|volume=91

|issue=4

|pages=927–930

|issn=0003-0554

|jstor=2952176

|doi=10.2307/2952176

|s2cid=143586186

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Strassler

|first=Robert

|year=1998

|title=The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War

|location=New York

|publisher=Simon and Schuster

|isbn=978-1-4391-0659-4

}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Walt

|first=Stephen M.

|author-link=Stephen Walt

|year=1985

|title=Alliance Formation and the Balance of World Power

|url=https://umdrive.memphis.edu/rblanton/public/POLS_7508_Fall_2012/walt_alliance_formation.pdf

|journal=International Security

|volume=9

|issue=4

|pages=3–43

|issn=0162-2889

|doi=10.2307/2538540

|jstor=2538540

|s2cid=7418197

|access-date=8 May 2013

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Waltz

|first=Kenneth

|author-link=Kenneth Waltz

|year=1979

|title=Theory of International Politics

|location=Long Grove, Illinois

|publisher=Waveland Press

|publication-date=2010

|isbn=978-1-57766-670-7

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Wright

|first=Quincy

|author-link=Quincy Wright

|year=1942

|title=A Study of War

|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.190008

}}

{{refend}}

{{refbegin|35em|indent=yes}}

• {{cite book

|last=Walt

|first=Stephen M.

|author-link=Stephen Walt

|year=1987

|title=The Origins of Alliances

|location=Ithaca, New York

|publisher=Cornell University Press

|isbn=978-0-8014-2054-2

|url=https://archive.org/details/originsofallianc00walt

}}

{{refend}}

Category:Political realism

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