Rethinking Alliance Politics and Regional Security in Asia

Rising unilateralism and receding global commitments are among some of the most notable shifts in U.S. foreign policy that are reshaping regional security dynamics and alliance politics in Asia. While the U.S.-led hub-and-spokes alliance system has historically underpinned regional stability, calls for greater burden-sharing are occurring amid intensifying U.S.-China competition and widening uncertainty about U.S. strategic priorities. In examining more closely how regional partners and allies are recalibrating their security ties with the United States, it is clear that there are emergent divergences between U.S. and Asian countries' regional threat perceptions and a potential reversal in moral hazard in the alliance system. These misalignments produce new strains in alliance cohesion, not least with growing expectations and pressure on Asian allies to adopt exclusive alignment and power balancing policies that they might otherwise prefer to avoid, thereby complicating efforts to sustain a stable regional order.