Economic Analysis Of Alliance From The Perspective Of Interdependence Theory

Since the issue of alliance is a particular norm in international relations, extensive researches and analysis have been conducted, home and abroad, from various perspectives, such as realism, institutionalism, constructivism, and so on, and some fruitful results have been achieved. As the interdependence of the global economy develops, it has become a pressing demand to add the economic factors to the study of this issue. Being a phenomenon and also a theoretical tool, the economic interdependence provides us with an ideal perspective for analysis on it. Consequently, it does not only enrich the study of alliance theory, but also is of great practical significance, to establish the relationship between economy and alliance.This article starts with the introduction to the theory of alliance, and then indicates the definition of alliance, the purpose of alliance building, as well as traditional methods of analysis of it respectively. After making a comparative analysis among different perspectives of analysis, such as realism, liberalism, and constructivism, and evaluating their strengths and weakness, the writer raises the issue of alliance from the perspective of economy. Because of the great impact of economy on various fields of international relations, there are a great many works on the economic analysis of international relations, and the issues become very complicated, which are beyond the writer's capability. Therefore, in order to better analyze the relationship between alliance and economic factors, it is sensible and convenient to select some necessary theories and parameters. Provided that the theory of economic interdependence is regarded as"the perfect combination of political and economic theory of the best in terms of the theory on the international and political economics", and one of the most widely applied concept tools in the study of this field nowadays as well, this article attempts to use the theory of economic interdependence of economy to study the relationship between economic factors and alliance. In order to facilitate the analysis of economic relationships with the alliance, the writer will consider the potential degree of dependence on the allies, the relative income and absolute return as parameters of the analysis, with examples.Trade dependence is the degree to which the development of a country's economic depends upon import and export trade, reflecting a country's economy and its opening to outside world and its interrelations with world economy. This article does not simply explore a country's trade dependence, or some detailed calculation methods, but rather confirm the interdependent trade relations among allies, and illustrate the impact of the degree of trade among allies on their relations, and try to study how the trade dependence promotes the allies development, on the condition of allies trade international environment, the trade division of labor among the allies, and the level of allies economic development, with practical examples. From the mutual trade promotion allocation of resource to promote international and domestic political development of each other, as well as the cognitive perspective, this paper interprets the shape of the trade relations of allies, and the change of allies internal status and economic development, in a relatively moderate historical period. What's more, this paper also analyzes the condition under which the trade relations influence the allies negatively, and comes to three conclusions. First, the volume of trade between countries in accounting for the proportion of gross national product. Second, whether the allies attach importance to bilateral trade. Third but not the last is the change of the international environment, including the domestic environment of the allies. Relative income and absolute return play an important part in a country's foreign policy formulation process, and greatly influence the development of alliance relations.This article does not discuss about relative income and absolute return to find out which is more popular and important, but focuses on the condition under which the condition of relative income can be dominant and make the alliance development difficult, and which absolute return takes the upper hand to promote the alliance development. Generally speaking, in terms of the security and political issues, the consideration of relative income will be dominant, while in the field of economy, absolute return will be enhanced, which is determined by the different features of political and economic issues. However, the analysis of these two issues must be combined with the international environment, in order to clarify problems. In addition, besides the well-known changes in the international environment, the changes of internal relations and development stages within allies and the difference in cooperation will also have an impact on the status of relative income and absolute return. In the alliance system, a country gives the priority to security and political interests, rather than economic interests. Overall, in the field of economy, the allies pay much attention to long-term alliance relations, and absolute return is emphasized among the allies. In this sense, economic interdependence will promote the development of relations among allies. On the other hand, if the short-term distribution of interests within allies does not meet the condition of equilibrium, the development of alliance will be impeded when the relative income within the allies is concerned. However, in secure areas, relative gains of national security will always be dominant.Nowadays, continuous integration in economic development and the relative ease of the international environment have provided much possibility of promoting and consolidating alliance for economic interdependence. However, the impact of some domestic and international factors should also be considered. In terms of economic factors, it is not enough to analyze the economic exchange. Rather, from a dynamic point of view, combined with the country's economic development, internal situation and the state's international environment, certain problems should be analyzed in certain way. This article just attempts to explore some economic factors and alliance development, and more complicated issues need to be further studied by domestic and foreign scholars.