Understanding International Alliances

International alliances are arrangements among states that bind them to cooperate in military, diplomatic and economic ways for a common cause. The cause can be national security or other goals such as reducing poverty or protecting the environment. These commitments are formally set by treaties. They require the state parties to relinquish some of their sovereignty and thus may create tensions.

Alliances have been formed since the earliest sovereign communities consolidated power by joining forces to conquer territory or resist attack. The modern incarnation of this concept was developed in the aftermath of World War II with the founding of NATO and European Union. These organizations grew beyond their original bulwark against the Soviet Union and into global players that now address a host of other issues including poverty, climate change, and weapons of mass destruction.

In this lesson, students will consider the concept of alliance interdependence and how it affects the United States’ ability to influence allied behavior during a crisis. They will also learn that, contrary to reputation-skeptic arguments, a country’s reliability does not necessarily depend on the occurrence of a specific threat. Rather, my theory of alliance interdependence suggests that a state’s perception of its ally’s reliability will depend on the context and nature of a particular crisis.

In addition to alliances established by treaty, many countries are part of non-combat operations and coalitions based on geographically limited regional organizations as well as resource agreements. For example, the United States is a member of NATO, the Partnership for Peace program with Russia and other former Soviet Republics, and an informal group of nations called the “Near Abroad.” The term “alliance” can be used to describe any of these groups of nations.