Whose side is the US on? Doubts strain alliances

WINSTON CHURCHILL told a story of an 1895 encounter, as a young cavalry officer, with the statesman William Harcourt. Af-ter some discussion of great issues, Churchill asked eagerly: “What will happen then?” Harcourt replied, with Victorian complacency: “My dear Winston, the experiences of a long life have convinced me that nothing ever happens.”

- By Max Hastings

Few people 130 years later could succumb to any similar delusion in a world that seems to have consigned itself to perpetual turmoil. Most recently, Poland has frightened European capitals by electing a right-wing, anti-European Union president. The British government published a long-awaited strategic defense review, which proposes rearmament to bring about “war-fighting readiness,” according to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as Ukraine launched stunning drone strikes against five bomber bases deep inside Russia.

There is more. At a conference in Singapore last weekend, France's president warned of dire consequences for democracies if Russia prevails in Ukraine. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged Asian nations to stand tall against Chinese aggression as Australia’s defense minister challenged China to justify its huge military and naval buildup. His Philippine counterpart said China has been “absolutely irresponsible and reckless in appropriating most, if not all of the South China Sea, and the world cannot tolerate this.”

These various words were uttered, those events took place, many thousands of miles apart. But the common strand is fear that the threat of major conflict among nations is growing, that the international rules-based order has collapsed.

Let us first review some of the stuff said in Singapore. Washington sought to message Asian nations that it is time to pick a side — to fall in behind the US to confront the rising menace from China not only against Taiwan, but against national sovereignties across the region. Unfortunately, it’s hard for Donald Trump to rally Asian nations to military solidarity, while waging a trade war against most.

“By assailing interdependence,” Joseph Nye and Robert Keohane write in the current issue of