A defense pact (
Commonwealth spelling: defence pact) is a type of
treaty
A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention ...
or
military alliance
A military alliance is a formal Alliance, agreement between nations that specifies mutual obligations regarding national security. In the event a nation is attacked, members of the alliance are often obligated to come to their defense regardless ...
in which the signatories promise to support each other militarily and to defend each other.
[Volker Krause, J. David Singer "Minor Powers, Alliances, And Armed Conflict: Some Preliminary Patterns", in "Small States and Alliances", 2001, pp 15–23, (Print) (Online]
/ref> Generally, the signatories point out the threats and concretely prepare to respond to it together.[Fulvio Attinà "State aggregation in defense pacts: systemic explanations", Jean Monnet Working Papers, University of Catania, nr. 56, November 2004, ISSN 2281-902]
/ref>
Current treaties
Historical treaties
See also
* Military alliance
A military alliance is a formal Alliance, agreement between nations that specifies mutual obligations regarding national security. In the event a nation is attacked, members of the alliance are often obligated to come to their defense regardless ...
* List of military alliances
A military alliance is a legally binding treaty between two or more parties in which the contracting parties agree to mutually protect one another militarily in case of an armed conflict. Military alliances differ from Coalition#Military, coaliti ...
References
Defense policy
Military alliances
Treaties by type
{{treaty-stub