Authoritative or Loyal? Text Analysis of NATO’s Communication of Allies’ Reputation

How does the NATO Secretariat talk about their own allies and why? Through the text analysis of news articles published on NATO’s website in the period 2008-2023, this paper sheds light on how the Secretariat communicates the authority of and loyalty towards each respective ally. In order to determine the key variables impacting this behavior, this paper will explore two potential groups of independent variables: defense spending and governance indicators. The paper builds on a preliminary analysis of 18 months of news articles which shows a trend of directly proportional relationship between defense spending and authority of an ally, and an inversely proportional relationship between defense spending and loyalty towards an ally. Theoretically, the paper will emphasize the agency of the Secretariat in crafting and communicating the standing of allies, thus aiding to greater norm internationalization. This, in turn, leads to alliance cohesion and easier adoption of decisions by unanimity.