Class Year

2025

Document Type

Student Research Paper

Date of Creation

Fall 2025

Department 1

Political Science

Abstract

In this paper, I investigate the relationship between the total number of international organizations a state is involved in and its military expenditures as a percentage of GDP. Utilizing both qualitative and quantitative analysis, I find support for my hypothesis that the more international organizations a state is a member of, the less a state will expend on its military. Qualitatively, I focus on the three main theories of international relations (realism, liberalism, and constructivism) to construct a theoretical foundation for my paper. Under realism, I focus on free riding behavior, under liberalism, I center on non-military priorities, and under constructivism, I explore the diffusion of peaceful norms. Quantitively, I employ an ordinary least squares linear regression utilizing cross-sectional panel data and find a statistically significant negative relationship between the total number of international organizations a state is involved in and its military expenditure as a percentage of GDP. These results carry broader policy implications as states may explore more nontraditional methods to provide security through diplomacy, for instance, in place of a large military. Finally, I employ NATO as a case study throughout this paper to demonstrate that as people lose confidence in international organizations, states turn to more traditional means of security: the military.

Comments

This work was written for POL-403. IR Capstone: International Organizations.

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