‘Why is there no NATO in Asia?’ revisited: Prospect theory, balance of threat, and US alliance strategies
Journal: European Journal of International Relations
Year: 2011

Why did the US prefer multilateral alliances in Europe, but bilateral alliances in Asia after World War II? Rationalists and constructivists debate the impact of power, institutions, and identities in explaining this highly contested question. We introduce a new argument embedded in prospect theory from political psychology — a prospect–threat alliance model — to account for the variation in US alliance strategy toward Europe and Asia after World War II. Through setting the threat level as a ref