Rooks, knights, or pawns: different types of forward deployed conventional military forces and extended deterrence.

Today, more than 100,000 American service members are deployed overseas to allied and partner nations across the world. “Forward deployment,” as it is commonly referred to, has been a cornerstone of American foreign policy for decades, reaching back to early days of the Cold War. However, the United States is not the only country to forward deploy its military, most of the worlds major powers engage in forward deployment for many of the same reasons, i.e. deterring aggression against the state’s international partners. However, almost all research has focused on forward deployments conducted by the United States. Additionally, when scholars study forward deployment, they usually only look at the number of troops involved, rather than what kinds of forces are being deployed. Failing to examine other countries or differences in military forces diminishes our understanding of forward deployment.

This dissertation fills the gap in the literature by examining forward deployment by all major powers. The dissertation also looks beyond the number of troops deployed, to also examine how qualitative differences between military forces, based on their strategic role, affects whether or not the host of those deployments is the target of a military conflict. The results show that only some types of military forces do deter conflict, but not in all scenarios. Additionally, deployments by the United States seem to be unique in their effect to deter or incite conflict, compared to other states.