Abstract: The buckling of an axially compressive strutconstrained by a flexible sleeve is studied for the cases of a single point contactand a curved line contact between the strut and the sleeve. Under the smalldeflection assumption, the second order differential equilibrium equationsof the strut and the sleeve satisfying deformation compatibilityconditions are obtained. The deflection, the axial displacement, and thecontact reactions of the strut are then obtained. The length of the linecontact is uniquely determined by the axially compressive force. Twoexamples indicate that the axial displacement of the strut caused by bendingis large when the stiffness of the sleeve is small, and vice versa,which is in good agreementwith the large deflection solution. It is confirmed that thesmall deflection assumption is valid here.