Image credit: Tom Page - Flickr, CC BY SA 2.0/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
February 15, 2023
The Difference between an Ally and a Partner
“Allies and partners” are at the molten core of US defense strategy. The 2022 United States National Defense Strategy (NDS) uses the phrase “Allies and partners” 117 times and devotes an entire chapter to the imperative of “Anchoring our Strategy in Allies and Partners and Advancing Regional Goals.” It proclaims allies and partners a “center of gravity for this strategy.”
But what are allies and partners for exactly? And what is the United States trying to achieve through its alliances and partnerships?
Alliances and partnerships should not be treated as ends unto themselves. Washington should think carefully about the security goals It seeks to advance through its alliances and partnerships.
This is a gauche question in Washington, where allies especially have taken on religious valence (Close readers will note a quirk in the NDS text. “Allies” get a capital “A” to signal their pride of place in the hierarchy of US foreign policy relationships. Mere partners, in contrast, don’t get to be proper nouns). The value of US allies and partners is treated as self-evident, something too obvious to question. This is problematic because it creates an intellectual fuzziness conducive to goal displacement.
Read the full article from Inkstick.
More from CNAS
-
The Surprising Success of U.S. Military Aid to Ukraine
Commentary
Ukraine’s military has defied expectations in its war with Russia, and many analysts attribute its success to U.S. help. But the mere fact of receiving aid is no guarantee of ...
By Rachel Tecott & Polina Beliakova
-
Defense & Aerospace Air Power Podcast with Stacie Pettyjohn and Becca Wasser
Podcast
On this week’s episode of the Defense & Aerospace Report Air Power podcast, co-hosts Vago Muradian and JJ Gertler review the air war in Ukraine one year into the conflict with...
By Stacie Pettyjohn & Becca Wasser
-
Avoiding the Brink
Reports
The United States is entering an unprecedented multipolar nuclear era that is far more complex and challenging than that of the Cold War. This report examines potential trigge...
By Stacie Pettyjohn & Hannah Dennis
-
DEFAERO Strategy Series with CNAS' Richard Fontaine
Podcast
On this latest episode of the Defense & Aerospace Report Strategy Series, Richard Fontaine, the president and CEO of the Center for a New American Security, discusses key take...
By Richard Fontaine
