10 garner new scholarships New Croft Director named. Miss. The nature of alliances between unequal states is the subject of a brown bag lecture on Friday, Nov. 19, at the Croft Institute for International Studies at The University of Mississippi. Major powers appear to gain little in terms of security from allying with minor powers, while minor powers live in fear of being abandoned by their major-power patrons. However, we do witness major powers providing deterrence benefits to smaller states, which presents the puzzle. Sprecher, who bases his findings on actual alliances drawn from the 19 th and 20 th centuries, will address the means in which great powers provide deterrence benefits to smaller powers, through the mechanism of formal military alliances.
Great powers can make their promises credible by using what are termed costly signals.
Croft Institute for International Studies Brown Bag Lectures are free and open to the public.