TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2019//
TI  - Tripwires and free-riders: do forward-deployed U.S. troops reduce the willingness of host-country citizens to fight for their country?
JO  - Contemporary security policy
A1  - Jakobsen, Jo
A1  - Jakobsen, Tor G.
SP  - 135
EP  - 164
VL  - 40
IS  - 2
N2  - 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 "tripwire" 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>
LA  - en
SN  - 1352-3260
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2018.1492066
ID  - ref1
ER  -