@article{ref1,
title="Tripwires and free-riders: do forward-deployed U.S. troops reduce the willingness of host-country citizens to fight for their country?",
journal="Contemporary security policy",
year="2019",
author="Jakobsen, Jo and Jakobsen, Tor G.",
volume="40",
number="2",
pages="135-164",
abstract="This article investigates the relationship between U.S. overseas troops and the willingness of the citizens of host states to fight for their country. The study joins the long-running debate about burden-sharing and free-riding among U.S. allies. Unlike most previous empirical studies, we focus on non-material or intangible measures of the underlying concepts. Our dependent variable estimates the proportion of citizens expressing a willingness to fight for their country. Scores at the aggregate-national as well as the individual level are shaped by the presence of U.S. military forces, which act as a &quot;tripwire&quot; signaling credible security commitments. This increases opportunities of (non-material) free-riding. We present both bivariate and multivariate analyses covering the period 1981-2014 to test this supposition. <br><br>FINDINGS indicate that once U.S. troop levels reach a certain threshold (between 100 and 500 troops), citizens' willingness to fight drops significantly. This likely reflects non-material free-riding.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1352-3260",
doi="10.1080/13523260.2018.1492066",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2018.1492066"
}