The diffusion of military power

This dissertation examines the diffusion of military power throughout the international system, explaining how variations in its spread influence international politics, especially the balance of power and warfare. States have a number of possible strategic choices in the face of military innovations, including adoption, countering, forming alliances, and shifting towards neutrality. My theory, named adoption capacity theory, argues that for any given innovation, the financial resources and the organizational changes required for adoption govern the system-level distribution of responses and the choices of individual states. As the cost-per-unit of the technological components of a military innovation increases and fewer commercial applications exist, the rate of adoption decreases and alternatives like forming alliances become more attractive. Similarly, if implementing an innovation requires large-scale organizational changes in recruitment, training, and warfighting doctrine, fewer actors are likely to adopt. However, while higher financial requirements generally mean adoption patterns will benefit preexisting wealthy and powerful states, higher organizational change requirement