Heiko Bubholz 
The political economy of NATO in theory and practice 

Diploma Thesis from the year 2003 in the subject Politics – Topic: International Organisations, grade: 1, 7, http://www.uni-jena.de/, language: English, abstract: The Atlantic Alliance, as a scientific subject, could be and is the primary matter of concern for representatives within the fields of political science and history. Conversely, this paper shall describe, explain and evaluate the Alliance from the perspective of the political economy.
Jaime Shea once posed the question: “Where is the debate about the future of NATO?” This paper could thus be conceived of as a contribution to this discussion. Since it originates from a thesis in economics, the analyses and examinations ought respectively apply and focus on a theoretical framework, which independently combines economic as well as methods from political science.
In 1999, Todd Sandler and Keith Hartley published a book which drew significant attention throughout the scientific community in the areas of security and economic problems. Their work, ‘The Political Economy of NATO’, dealt with several issues concerning political and economic considerations of security in general and in particular the Alliance. This publication actually initiated the motivation for personal research in the field, which finally led to this paper.
To establish a firm theoretical framework, the author does not hesitate to combine a set of equally important ideas and approaches from both political science and economics. Assumptions of the Realist school of thought of political science will be merged with economic approaches of public choice and other theoretical concepts. Yet, none of the respective viewpoints shall be given priority over the others. Instead, the aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive view of the political and economical dimensions in the Alliance arena.