This paper presents an alternative approach for analyzing internationa
l competition and alliances as rent-seeking contests that are able to
capture the impure public good nature of defense spending. Two-country
Cournot and Stackelberg games are considered and comparative static r
esults derived. A three-country model is investigated, and alliance be
havior is explored in the context of this rent-seeking model. The conj
ecture that an alliance may become less effective if the allies' inter
ests become more closely aligned is verified. Finally, the model is ge
neralized, and a Nash-Cournot equilibrium is computed.