by Rachel McVicker
Faculty mentor: Dr. Jason Davidson
The United States has waged a war on terror since the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and while the US was in crisis we called on our allies to aid in the fight. Through this project we evaluated the contributions in troops and money that the US allies made to the War in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a study of burden-sharing but also tries to evaluate why these nations came to the US’s aid. Through the research we determined that the Top Contributors to the War in Afghanistan were the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Canada and the Top Contributors to the Iraq War are the UK, Italy, Australia, South Korea, and Poland. The war in Afghanistan received much more substantial contributions as the efforts were less controversial where as the contributions to Iraq were much more limited and the countries contributing were much smaller powers. The major conclusions are that the US must value the alliances of the UK and Italy as they were willing to come to US aid in both instances, and the allies fatalities are comparable to the US’s suggesting that their troops were equally involved in the conflict.
