联盟的起源:理性主义研究新进展

The Origin of Alliances: Recent Development of the Rationalistic Research

联盟作为具有战略意义的一种国家间关系,对其研究在国际关系理论中占据了一个十分重要的位置,也有助于学者们将具有普遍意义的国际关系理论运用于具体的国际关系研究。围绕着联盟的起源这一主题,理性主义国际关系理论提出了许多重要的见解。在最近的十多年来,这一主题的研究又与单极体系内的联盟现实相结合,提出和分析了如下方面的核心问题:联盟需要什么样的共同利益基础;制衡性的联盟为何没有出现;国际结构如何塑造大国的联盟选择;地理因素如何影响联盟的形成以及联盟起源的其他根源有哪些。理性主义国际关系理论的这些研究都具有一定的启发意义,但总的来看,现实主义范式的研究占据了主流地位,系统性的理论创新不够,并没有提出解释联盟起源的新的核心概念,即如果把联盟界定为一种明确、稳定的战略关系,而非仅仅是针对安全威胁的军事同盟的话,仅有结构现实主义和威胁平衡理论是不够的;联盟起源的理论研究仍然具有较为广阔的空间。建构一种更加普遍的、有强大解释力的利益关系概念,在此基础上推导出国家的联盟选择战略,将会有助于更加具体深入地了解联盟的起源。

As a strategic relationship between states, alliance has been a very important part of international relations theory. Its research can help us apply the universal international relations theory to concrete international studies. Surrounding the topic of the origin of alliances, rationalistic international relations theories have developed a number of significant insights. Over the past decade, the research has been focused on alliance reality of the unipolar system, which has brought forward and analyzed the following core issues: what common interests are needed for an alliance? Why there are no balancing alliances among great powers; how international structure shapes the alliance choice of great powers; how geographical factors influence the alliance formation; and what else origins of alliances exist. All these rationalistic researches are enlightening, but generally speaking, the realistic paradigm has played a mainstream role, and there is no systematic theoretical innovation for the formation of alliance. There is no new core concept for explaining the origins of alliances. Therefore, the origins of alliances still have plenty of space for theoretical research.