Alliances Are Back at the Center of Power

When future students of international relations look at our era’s power shifts, they will note the reemergence of great-power conflict, the return of large-scale war to Europe, and the rise of new powers in the developing world.

But they will also notice the many shifts as countries rearrange their relations with each other in an increasingly unstable world. After two decades of relative peace and economic globalization, there is a renewed focus on security and the age-old instruments of diplomacy that states use to achieve it: alliances and other arrangements with like-minded powers.

Old alliances are being revitalized and expanded—just look at NATO. New axes are emerging, such as Russia and China’s ever closer embrace. And in an act of rebalancing worthy of an international relations textbook, various bilateral and multilateral security pacts are solidifying in the Indo-Pacific to address Beijing’s growing military might. These include the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue comprising Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, as well as the two-year-old Australia-United Kingdom-United States pact, known as AUKUS.

The increasing role of alliances and other power blocs in the global system is also a testament to the failure of big multilateral institutions to live up to expectations. Superpower competition and other disputes within its bodies have made the United Nations increasingly ineffective, while other, more inclusive organizations, such as the G-77, have struggled to find a common denominator among competing interests and disparate ideologies. Instead, as Foreign Policy noted on the cover of the Fall 2023 issue of our magazine, “powerful blocs are getting things done.”

Here are five of our most noteworthy articles on alliances and power blocs from 2023.

1. NATO’s Next Decade

By FP Contributors, July 6

Which Russia scenarios should NATO prepare for? Should Ukraine become a member? Can the bloc survive the possible return of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency after the  2024 election? Foreign Policy asked nine experts to outline the future of the trans-Atlantic alliance.

2. The China-Russia Axis Takes Shape

By Bonny Lin, Sept. 11

Russia’s war in Ukraine has tightened Beijing and Moscow’s embrace, but there are many other reasons why this still-informal alliance is taking shape. Continued convergence of the two revisionist powers against the U.S.-led West is the most likely course, Bonny Lin writes.

BRICS leaders and representatives, including delegates from the six nations invited to join the alliance, pose for a family photo at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg on Aug. 24. Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images

3. BRICS Expansion Is No Triumph for China

By C. Raja Mohan, Aug. 29

In August, the BRICS forum—initially comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—invited six new members to their club, igniting a frenzy of speculation that the group would turn into a powerful anti-Western bloc. C. Raja Mohan explains why this view is outlandish, as is the notion that China and Russia have used BRICS to make significant gains among the countries of the global south.

4. Never Say Never to an Asian NATO

By Michael J. Green, Sept. 6

There are good reasons why past attempts to form NATO-like security alliances in Asia failed. With China’s rise as a revisionist military power, however, the logic of greater collective security in the region is becoming increasingly compelling, Michael J. Green writes.

5. The Nimble New Minilaterals

By C. Raja Mohan, Sept. 11

As an alternative to constricting alliances and ineffective multilateralism, small groups of countries are increasingly cooperating on specific issues and shared interests—often voluntarily, and rarely as a formal bloc. Minilateral groups such as the Quad and AUKUS could be the future of diplomacy, especially in Asia and the Pacific.