The United States has a mixed record of encouraging allied burden-sharing. While it has successfully pressured some allies to assume responsibility for their own defense, in other cases it has failed or chosen not to seek burden-sharing at all. The Burden-Sharing Dilemma: Coercive Diplomacy in US Alliance Politics argues that this variation results from the United States tailoring its pressure to balance two competing priorities: conserving resources and preserving alliance influence. Although burden-sharing lowers costs for great power patrons, it empowers allies to resist patron influence. Through case studies of US alliances formed during the Cold War, the book demonstrates that patrons manage this dilemma by combining security assurances with threats of abandonment to calibrate burden-sharing pressure.