A theory of wide-ranging importance in historical and political thought, elitism as applied to foreign policy seeks to expl, Entailment, Presupposition, and Implicature, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/entangling-alliances, George Washington Birthplace National Monument, Counterclaims and Set-Offs against Sovereigns, Washington's Farewell Address (September 17, 1796). NATO Public Diplomacy Division, NATO Audience Research: Presummit Polling Results 2021, June 11, 2021. John Psaropoulous, Greece Ratifies Landmark Intra-NATO Defence Pact with France,. However, the date of retrieval is often important. As suggested above, failure to obtain consensus in the NAC would not paralyze action: collective self-defense would still be possible (though without NATO common assets). ensnare. Bruno Tertrais. After focusing on peace support and counterterrorism operations for twenty years, NATO renewed its focus on collective defense vis--vis Russia, and is currently reviewing what the rise of China means for the Alliances security. Instead, we should focus on cultivating alliances that help us out militarily and let us reduce our defense burden. iii. A problem with this measurement is that its overly narrow definition of entanglement may overlook cases of the phenomenon in the empirical record. The UK has two sovereign bases in Cyprus, which are protected by the British Army. Despite the closeness between Pakistan and China, Islamabad insists that it does not want to be part of any bloc.118Ayaz Gul, Pakistans PM Urges US, China to Reduce Tensions, Voice of America, December 9, 2021, https://www.voanews.com/a/pakistan-s-pm-urgesus-china-to-reduce-tensions/6346614.html. Triple Alliance, secret agreement between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy formed in May 1882 and renewed periodically until World War I. Germany and Austria-Hungary had been closely allied since 1879. In fact, two scholars suggest that when seen in a historical perspective, US-based alliances tend to last twice as long as non-US-based ones, and that the main treaty-based American alliances forged after 1945 are historical outliers in terms of their duration.27Mark S. Bell and Joshua D. Kertzer, Trump, Psychology, and the Future of US Alliances, inAssessing the US Commitment to Allies in Asia and Beyond, ed. The Article 5 language was a compromise between the language of the Rio and Brussels treaties. alliances and partnerships in its grand strategy more generally. That same year, Armenia and Russia signed a bilateral defense pact that included a security guarantee.54Breffni ORourke, Russia, Armenia Sign Extended Defense Pact, Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, August 19, 2010, https://www.rferl.org/a/Russian_President_Medvedev_To_Visit_Armenia/2131915.html. Finally, the Arab Leagues mutual defense commitment still exists on paper, though it has not proven very efficient since its signature in 1950.19Treaty of Joint Defense and Economic Cooperation between the States of the Arab League, June 17, 1950, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/ arabjoin.asp. Recent spats between Turkey and its allies have led many wondering whether Ankara would, or should, remain a member of NATO. Allies in fact often play the role of a brake on escalation. Entangling Alliances. The end of World War I and the resulting Treaty of Versailles profoundly affected the geopolitics of Europe and the rest of the world. Members of its sister organizations, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), and the South African Development Community (SADC), signed their own Mutual Assistance Pact for the former (in 2000), and a Mutual Defense Pact for the latter (2003). George Washington and in the early 19th-century Monroe Doctrine. NATOs Article 5 was invoked for the first time ever. Stephen Kinzer. It was designed as a defensive alliance in central europe against the other great powers. Collective Security Treaty, Collective Security Treaty Organization. The same problem exists with major cyberattacks, which could qualify as armed attacks warranting self-defense only if attribution could be ascertainedsomething which may be extremely difficult. . (Read James Baker's Britannica essay on isolationism.) This definition of alliance also excludes collective security organizations such as the Organization for the Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), as well as groupings such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).10Vali Kaleji, The Shanghai Cooperation Organization Is No New Warsaw Pact or Eastern NATO,National Interest, November 13, 2021, https://nationalinterest.org/feature/shanghai-cooperation-organization-no-%E2%80%98new-warsaw%E2%80%99-or-%E2%80%98easternnato%E2%80%99-196138. Due to Wellingtons antinuclear stance, the United States withdrew its alliance obligations to New Zealand under the ANZUS Treaty in 1986. It also helps reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation, a long-standing US and global concern: extended nuclear deterrence is widely considered the best way to discourage an ally from embarking on developing a nuclear weapons program of their own. What does entangling mean? Imperialism was an encouragement for militarism to take place because it created a . After all, isnt the US Secretary of States own rock band called Coalition of the Willing? Russia and China have never openly attacked territories clearly covered by Western security guarantees. The public debates surrounding the Russia-Armenia defense accord of 2010 (about Nagorno-Karabakh), or the France-Greece strategic partnership of 2021 (about the Greek EEZ), are cases in point.108See Breffni ORourke, Russia, Armenia Sign Extended Defense Pact, Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, August 19, 2010, https://www.rferl.org/a/Russian_President_Medvedev_To_Visit_Armenia/2131915.html; and Bruno Tertrais, Reassurance and Deterrence in the Mediterranean: The Franco-Greek Defense Deal, Institut Montaigne, November 17, 2021, https://www.institutmontaigne.org/en/blog/reassurance-and-deterrence-mediterranean-francogreek-defense-deal. Almost all of these alliances are vague enough or contain sufficient ambiguity to avoid the protected party believing that its security guarantor would automatically use force to defend it. 1. of, from, in, or characteristic of a country or language other than one's own: a foreign language. Treaty of Joint Defense and Economic Cooperation between the States of the Arab League, June 17, 1950, Russia and North Korea Sign Friendship Treaty,. US-led formal alliances are unique in that they involve both interests and ideals.78Bruno Tertrais, The Changing Nature of Military Alliances,The Washington Quarterly27, no. Mexico, for its part, withdrew from the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistancethe Rio Treatyin 2002 to protest against US foreign policy. The overall cause of World War was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Then there are more complex cases. 2 (2004), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1162/0163 66004773097759. This is the case for two of the most important ones: NATO and the CSTO. These countries are thus now protected by concentric circles of alliances resembling a set of matryoshka dolls. Mark Esper. Likewise, Seoul and Washington did not overreact when North Korea attacked a South Korean ship and shelled islands in 2010; the CSTO did not move when a missile fell on Armenian territory in 2020; and Iranian attacks on Saudi territory over the past decade elicited fairly measured US reactions. cms, https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2019/08/27/discours-du-president-de-la-republique-a-la-conference-des-ambassadeurs-1, http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/61719, https://www.scmp.com/news/china/ diplomacy/article/3140798/russia-relationship-better-alliance-chinese-foreign-minister, https://2009-2017.state.gov/s/l/treaty/ collectivedefense/index.htm. In February and March 2022, consensus in the NAC was easily achieved to bolster deterrence and defense of Central and Eastern European countries. Finally, the reinforcement of defense arrangements may reflect the post-1990 maturation of regional organizations, as was the case in Europe and to a lesser extent in Africa. In 1902, Italy negotiates a secret treaty with France in which it was agreed that Italy would remain neutral in the event that Germany attacked France. Causes of WW1: Franco-Russian Alliance. a substantial effect.94Albrecht Randelzhofer and Georg Nolte, Article 51, inThe Charter of the United Nations: A Commentary, eds. The protector power can play a mediating role between allies, as the United States sometimes does between Greece and Turkey, or between Japan and South Korea. Meanwhile, NATO would have to guard against opportunism by Russia. Alliances are regularly described as being in crisis. Yet as Alexander Lanoszka puts it, dysfunction is a permanent feature of alliance politics, not a temporary bug.25Lanoszka,Military Alliances, 193. Yet the same allies could also serve as a restraining factor, fearing that their own regional interests would then be less protected (a classic case being Europeans concerned about Vietnam).112Allies can also play a restraining role on enlargement, as demonstrated by the French and German refusals to offer a NATO Membership Action Plan to Georgia and Ukraine in 2008 and more recently in 2022 with Turkeys opposition to Finland and Swedens accession to NATO. The United States stands out as a security guarantor due to the combination of its enjoyable location, its democratic nature, and its unparalleled power. This is the case for the US commitment to the South-East Asia Treaty (see below). Alliances also have a pacifying effect: they damp the risk of open conflict among members. These alliances weren't the sole cause of World War I, as some historians . The causes of World War I have been debated since it endedbut the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was an early catalyst. If anything, the United States occasionally appears hesitant in upholding its own red lines, to the point that some have wondered whether its nonintervention in Syria in 2013 might have encouraged Russian and Chinese aggressiveness.114See Jeffrey Lewis and Bruno Tertrais, Beyond The Red Line: The United States, France, and Chemical Weapons in the Syrian War, 2013-2018,Recherches & Documentsno. significance: one of the five causes to WWI (militarism, nationalism, entangling alliances, propaganda, imperialism). In all of the above cases, most Western countries would almost certainly support the United States as well as their friends and allies across the globe. China sees the Quad as an Indo-Pacific NATO. And, whereas most analysts agree that Russia and China are not on the way to forming a true defense alliance, it is increasingly perceived as such.128Ananth Krishnan, Chinas Foreign Minister says U.S. There is no need for complacency. Congressional Research Service, The Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance and the Crisis in Venezuela, Insights (series), Version 8, Updated December 11, 2019, Mark S. Bell and Joshua D. Kertzer, Trump, Psychology, and the Future of US Alliances, in, Khang Vu, Why China and North Korea Decided to Renew a 60-year-old Treaty,. Separately, the five Nordic countries set up a common defense cooperation framework (NORDEFCO) in 2009. Analysts worry that the impenetrable web of obligations may put us on a conveyor belt to conflict.7See Roger Cohen, Yes, It Could Happen Again,Atlantic, August 2014, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/08/yes-it-could-happenagain/373465/; Ja Ian Chong and Todd H. Hall, The Lessons of 1914 for East Asia Today: Missing the Trees for the Forest,International Security39, no. Although it may be necessary to cooperate with friendly governments, there is no reason to become further enmeshed in entangling alliances abroad. In fact, Beijing has always claimed that the US network of global alliances is a cover for hegemony.119China Believes That America Is Forging Alliances to Stop Its Rise,Economist, September 25, 2021, https://www.economist.com/china/2021/09/25/ china-believes-that-america-is-forging-alliances-to-stop-its-rise. A Conversation With Jake Sullivan, Council on Foreign Relations, December 17, 2021, A. Trevor Thrall et al., Power, Profit or Prudence? Not to be outmaneuvered, in 2006, Iran and Syria signed a mutual security pact that reportedly includes a defense clause (although a text has never been publicly released).58Bilal Y. Saab, Syria and Iran Revive an Old Ghost with Defense Pact, Brookings Institution, Op-Ed, July 4, 2006, https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/ syria-and-iran-revive-an-old-ghost-with-defense-pact/; and United States Institute of Peace, Syrias Alliance with Iran, USI Peace Briefing, May 2007, https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/syria_iran.pdf. Opinion polls show that overwhelming national majorities support their countrys NATO membership.47NATO Public Diplomacy Division, NATO Audience Research: Presummit Polling Results 2021, June 11, 2021, https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/ news_184687.htm. This is known as the Irish clause and is designed to accommodate the specific policies of Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Malta, and Sweden. Prominent among these are the 1839 Treaty of London, which promised that the United Kingdom would protect Belgium's neutrality, the 1879 Dual Alliance treaty between Germany and Austria-Hungary to protect each other in the event of . What if, for instance, a US president refused to defend a smaller NATO member against regional aggression? Abstract. When major global news breaks, the Atlantic Councils experts have you covereddelivering their sharpest rapid insight and forward-looking analysis direct to your inbox. There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship. The latest historical research on the origins of World War I is inconsistent with the chain-ganging hypothesis.117Tierney, Does Chain-Ganging Cause, 299. Alliances are modernizing and reinforcing themselves, with bilateral or multilateral military partnerships proliferating and expanding. There are a number of European alliances that contributed to the broad scope of World War I. Military alliances usually contain promises that in the event of war or aggression, signatory nations will support their allies. See Clara Sophie Cramer and Ulrike Franke, eds., Ambiguous Alliance: Neutrality, Opt-Outs, and European Defence, Essay Collection, European Council on Foreign Relations, June 2021. entangling phrase. As early as 1991, NATO allies declared that the consolidation and preservation throughout the continent of democratic societies and their freedom from any form of coercion or intimidation are therefore of direct and material concern to us.31Partnership with the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Statement, North Atlantic Council Meeting in Ministerial Session in Copenhagen, June 6-7, 1991, NATO Online Library, https://www.nato.int/docu/comm/49-95/c910607d.htm. During the war . Finally, Middle East scenarios deserve more analysis even though they are less connected to other alliances systems. /e/entangling.htm - 6k They are also less likely in themselves to produce a pushback from other countries (the security dilemma), especially when they adopt unilateral confidence-building measures aimed at reassuring a potential adversary that they have no aggressive designs against it. As per Saudi Arabia, US presidents have used language such as the United States is interested in the preservation of the independence and territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on . In fact, modern defense commitments are vaguer than they were in the past in terms of the anticipated allied response.115As an example, the Dual Alliance of 1879 committed Austria-Hungary and Germany to come down on Russia with the whole war strength of their empires. See The Dual Alliance Between Austria-Hungary and Germany October 7, 1879, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy, Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library (website), accessed May 30, 2022. By contrast, Washington did not support the French in Dien Bien Phu or the British in the Falklands. The NATO Alliance has welcomed fourteen new members since 1990, nearly doubling its membership. Sharon Stirling, German Marshall Fund of the United States, 2018, https://www.gmfus.org/sites/default/files/ Assessing%2520the%2520US%2520Commitment%2520to%2520Allies%2520in%2520Asia%2520and%2520Beyond_0_0.pdf. NATO's nemesis, the Warsaw Pact was set up by the Soviet Union in response to NATO after Moscow failed to reunify Germany. 1 (1997): 156-179, doi: 10.1080/00396339708442901. The creation of a unified Germany in 1871 had disturbed the old 'balance of power' in Europe. The term is most often applied to the political atmosphere . Breffni ORourke, Russia, Armenia Sign Extended Defense Pact, Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, August 19, 2010. To this list can be added Taiwan, the Gulf States, as well as Israelcountries that do not benefit from treaty-based commitments but for which repeated and explicit statements by US presidents amount to de facto security guarantees.17Neither Israel nor the United States was ever interested in forging a true defense pact. Bruno Simma et al., Third Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 1409. Intra-European defense solidarity was further reinforced by two new bilateral defense clauses: one between Germany and France through the Aachen Treaty of 2019 (which includes a particularly strong mutual commitment), and another between Greece and France through a strategic partnership agreement signed in 2021.35John Psaropoulous, Greece Ratifies Landmark Intra-NATO Defence Pact with France,Al Jazeera(website), October 7, 2021, https://www.aljazeera.com/ news/2021/10/7/greece-ratifies-intra-nato-defence-pact-with-france. They promote military victory by the extension of the . This, in turn, may lead to what political scientists call bandwagoning, or rallying behind a protector. This was made between Russia, France and Britain to counter the increasing threat from Germany. A second issue is entrapment through reputation concerns, which are often raised as a reason to intervene in defense of an ally or a partner. The first ever in-person summit of the leaders of the four countries was held in September 2021. As Beckley explains, in most conflicts, only a few allies were directly threatened and demanded US intervention. This author was wrong when he surmised in 2004 that permanent multinational alliances appear increasingly to belong to the past.2Bruno Tertrais, The Changing Nature of Military Alliances,The Washington Quarterly27, no. Pakistan withdrew from the (now defunct) South-East Asia Treaty Organization, or SEATO, in 1968 and no longer appears on the list of Manila-Pact-related US defense commitments. As an example, the Dual Alliance of 1879 committed Austria-Hungary and Germany to come down on Russia with the whole war strength of their empires. See The Dual Alliance Between Austria-Hungary and Germany October 7, 1879, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy, Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library (website), accessed May 30, 2022. 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