The End of Alliances [Paperback]

Why should the United States cling to military alliances established during the Cold War when the circumstances are now fundamentally different? InThe End of Alliances, Rajan Menon argues that our alliances in Europe and Asia have become irrelevant to the challenges we face today. The United States must be actively involved beyond its borders, but by relying on coalitions whose membership varies depending on the issue at hand. While a strategy that ceases to rely on alliances will mark a dramatic shift in American foreign policy, he reminds us that states routinely reassess and reorient their strategies. The United States, which studiously avoided alliances for much of its history only to embrace them during the Cold War, is no exception.The End of Alliancespredicts that the coming change in American strategy will force our traditional allies to rethink their choices and create new patterns in world politics. The controversial argument advanced by Menon will provoke debate among foreign policy specialists and the general public.

Preface
1. The Impermanence of Paradigms
2. Alliances and America's Grand Strategy
3. Whither the Atlantic Alliance
4. A Japan That Can--and Will--Do More
5. Conclusion of Age
Notes
Index

Menon offers a clear picture of the global shifts that have thrown the role of alliances into question. --G. John Ikenberry,Foreign Affairs

Rajan Menon's book is indispensable reading for anyone interested in understanding America's position in the world in the decades to come. --Hendrik Spruyt, Norman Dwight Harris Professor of International Relations, Northwestern University

In this book, Rajan Menon has accomplished something that many people call for but almost no one actually does. He has thought originally, from the bottom up, about how the United States should conduct its foreign policy--and proposes a major shift in the way America spends money, makes promises, and l3U