Burden-Sharing and Security in Alliances: The United Kingdom, West Germany, and Japan During the Cold War

Abstract

This article examines the economic consequences of US long-term global troop stationing after WWII, through which the country sought to guarantee the security of its allies in the escalating Cold War. Despite the undisputed post-war economic and military preponderance of the United States, domestic critics continued to highlight the burden of US global commitments. Events leading up to the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system in 1971-73 convinced most US (and British) policy-makers that the country was over extended and that allies should share the burden. First, this study focuses on burden-sharing between the United Kingdom and West Germany regarding the costs of occupation zones in West Germany in 1947. Second, it examines the trilateral negotiations on burden-sharing among the United States, the United Kingdom, and West Germany in 1966, from a balance-of-payments perspective. Third, burden-sharing in West Germany and Japan is analyzed by conceptualizing these countries' behavior as a security exporter or security importer. Whereas Germany transformed itself from a security importer to a security exporter, thus shedding the constraints of burden-sharing, Japan has remained a security importer.