Alliances help countries cooperate through shared standards and collective defence commitments. Assuming that another ally will always provide a capability can encourage a country to stop maintaining it. Specialist knowledge can disappear along with the equipment. Collective defence still depends on members contributing usable forces, so reliance on partners requires attention to what those partners actually retain. If several countries relinquish the same task, cooperation cannot supply the missing capability.
Chapter · 27:43-28:42
When alliance cooperation erodes national capabilities
Shared standards support collective defence, while assumptions about allied provision can allow specialist skills to disappear.