International alliance is a relationship between countries that can involve military cooperation, mutual defense, the sharing of information and trade in goods. Alliances can be formal and sealed with a treaty, or they may be more informal partnerships that are formed with the intent to solve global problems and learn from each other culturally. Some are long-term, and others are shorter-term and initiated under duress such as at the end of a war.
For thousands of years, states have pursued grand strategies via the formation of various types of alliances. These have ranged from tribal and clan alliances to the modern state alliances such as NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The idea that alliances can provide a source of power, influence and even security is widespread in world politics, dating at least to the Indian king Chandragupta’s classic Artha-shastra (“The Science of Material Gain”).
In recent decades, however, the utilitarian sense of alliances has become overshadowed by a more nebulous perception of them as expressions of shared values and a perhaps more questionable notion that they are an unalloyed good. As a result, it is increasingly common for alliances to be involved in activities outside their traditional remit. Whether in the form of US pressure on allies to scupper Chinese 5G technology or NATO’s intervention in Ukraine, such activities threaten the integrity of wider alliance systems and leave their members vulnerable to being dragged into wars they do not want to fight.
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