Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, NATO’s middle powers have been pressured into shouldering an increasing share of the costs of the transatlantic alliance. In Sharing the Burden? Benjamin Zyla rejects the claim that countries like Canada have shirked their responsibilities within NATO.

Using a range of measures that go beyond troop numbers and defense budgets to include peacekeeping commitments, foreign economic assistance, and contributions to NATO’s rapid reaction forces and infrastructure, Zyla argues that, proportionally, Canada’s NATO commitments in the 1990s rivaled those of the alliance’s major powers. At the same time, he demonstrates that Canadian policy was driven by strong normative principles to assist failed and failing states rather than a desire to ride the coattails of the United States, as is often presumed.

An important challenge to realist theories, Sharing the Burden? is a significant contribution to the debate on the nature of alliances in international relations.

Benjamin Zyla is a visiting scholar, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard, University and associate professor, School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa.

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‘Zyla has produced an outstanding study of Canada’s role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from the Cold War’s end through the 1990s… The author’s summary of NATO’s evolution during this time period is especially well done… Highly recommended.’

Choice Magazine - vol 53:01:2015