Better to Fight Another Day: A Pre-Theory of Insurgent Coalitions

The defense provided by interstate alliances operating in peacetime has often been considered a collective good subject to the free-riding and underprovision common to such goods I argue that within certain poorly integrated insurgent alliances, the exhaustion of allies may be a good valued almost as highly as the eventual collective victory. Coalition members might therefore limit their own participation in the conflict while encouraging allies to fully commit the lives of their supporters. Such free-riding is probably not common, however, partly because an organization's participation in the collective struggle offers important political and military benefits which are not collective in nature.