Testing the Logic of Collective Action in the Military Burden Sharing of the Arab “Ring States” and Israel (1960-2012)

Abstract

Arabs and Israel have had high defense spending to mobilize their resources for wars. They had three major wars, and one minor war. Some scholars have debated the reasons for not defeating Israel, despite waging the wars collectively. The answer that not all members of the ring states value these contributions equally. The findings are that Syria attempt to free ride on the other member of the ring States from 1960 till 1979. In other words, few countries member of the Ring States did not behave in the way the theory of collective action predicts. The findings suggest that large the Ring States members are burden-sharing at a greater rate than smaller of the ring States members when looking at military burdens and in agreement with the logic of collective action.