[3] Bandwagoning occurs when weaker states decide that the cost of opposing a stronger power exceeds the benefits.
[citation needed] The stronger power may offer incentives, such as the possibility of territorial gain, trade agreements, or protection, to induce weaker states to join with it.
The belief that states will ally with a dominant power, as opposed to balance against it, has been a common feature among foreign policy practitioners.
German Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz's "risk theory", for example, posited that if Germany built a formidable naval fleet, it could force the United Kingdom into neutrality or alliance with it by threatening to the latter's maritime supremacy.
[9] Henry Kissinger suggested that states tend to bandwagon "if leaders around the world... assume that the U.S. lacked either the forces or the will... they will accommodate themselves to the dominant trend".