U.S.-GERMAN DEFENSE BURDEN-SHARING SINCE 2014: COLLECTIVE DEFENSE OR FREE RIDER?

Abstract

Why does the United States continue to threaten NATO cohesion while pressuring the Federal Republic of Germany to increase its military strength and capabilities? Discord is highly evident among U.S. policy, words, and actions in what appears to be a burden-shifting problem. This thesis attempts to achieve three goals: (1) to assess whether the president fits best against the rational actor, bureaucratic politics, or organizational process theory; (2) whether the president is burden-sharing, burden-shifting, or potentially even free-riding; and (3) how the president's rhetoric, actions, and policy differences impact foreign policy execution. Hypothesis testing compares and contrasts competing models of foreign policy behavior and applies them to the real-life behavior of the United States between January 2014 and August 2019.