Arms Without Influence? Spatial Distribution of Defense Industrial Activity, Transatlantic Burden Sharing, and Strategy

Abstract

Resource allocation is a grand strategic choice; strategic autonomy requires resources and defense industrial autonomy. The allocation of resources and the sharing of defense burdens among members of the transatlantic security community is thus a fundamental component of the liberal international order. While economists have shed much light on cross-country variation in burden-sharing behavior, only qualitative work in the security studies field has addressed the nature of contributions to shared priorities, and neither field has adequately addressed sources of within-country variation, which is of primary interest to policy-makers aiming to mitigate burden-shifting tendencies in alliances. I find the larger the weight of arms production is in its national economy, the more a state spends on shared transatlantic priorities. This finding suggests that the strategic effects of defense industrial policy, and particularly the distribution of defense industries across Europe, extend beyond the production of defense articles and into the politics of burden sharing.