Samenvatting

Study of an exit dilemma from a defence economic perspective on alliances, more specifically against a background of burden sharing theories on NATO. We consider an international alliance, NATO, to be a community programmed to receive, as once membership has been obtained, no country has ever exited, either under pressure or voluntarily. This includes France, a country that has been in the process of "checking out" but never left altogether. The authors ask themselves whether it would be possible to envisage NATO's most prominent member, the US to exit - as in actually leave - NATO in the near future. From the empirical research underpinning this article it will become clear the US carry the heaviest burden by far, but as to the question whether this means they might be expected to exit NATO on the short-term there appear to be some other issues to consider.