Competitive coercion and the need to rebuild the US alliance system

The United States has risen to its position of primacy thanks to a carefully constructed system of alliances with numerous other countries. That system, however, has suffered significant damage in recent years, is under increasing attack both at home and abroad, and desperately needs rebuilding, argues Mira Rapp-Hooper, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center. In this interview with Robert Amsterdam, Rapp-Hooper discusses her new book, Shields of the Republic, which she describes as "a story of an American strategy," and how this successful alliance strategy has come under attack and now finds itself in peril. "When alliances are working, we do not see them at all. They are measured by the crises and wars that never happen," Rapp-Hooper says. "Washington is now running out of time to save this remarkable system of pacts, but it really does need it more than ever." The author also discusses how rival nations such as China and Russia have actively attacked the US alliance system with hybrid warfare and disinformation campaigns, while at the same time expanding their footprint of influence in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.