Bridging Alliances: Values, Interests and Strategy in Asia and Europe

CSDS POLICY BRIEF • 14/2023

By Rajmund Andrzejczak, Jordan Becker, Masafumi Ishii, Luis Simón and Douglas Lute

16.05.2023

The United States and its allies face challenges from two major Eurasian powers – China and Russia. The challenges are not just military or economic: both China and Russia, along with a host of smaller powers including Iran and North Korea, seek to alter the current international order to reflect their own interests, ideologies and values. In this context, the United States must manage varying configurations of allies, partners and unaligned states, each holding disparate sets of interests and values themselves. The challenge for American and allied policy makers, then, is to identify core principles to which they will hew doggedly, while remaining flexible within those boundaries. Similarly, the question of “membership” in the current United States-led order becomes a greater challenge when adversaries are proposing real alternatives. American and allied leaders must therefore balance firmness with inclusivity in their efforts at ordering.

CSDS Policy brief_2314.pdf (454.33 KB)

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