Strategic Competition > Alliances & Partnerships
Modernizing Traditional Alliances
Renewing the Foundations for Comprehensive Security
"Alliances anchored in history must be adapted for the future. Strengthening trusted partnerships across technology, supply chains, and innovation is as essential today as strengthening defense."
Mark Kennedy visiting NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
🔹 Strategic Context
- This page is part of WISC’s Strategic Competition framework, applying geoeconomic statecraft through the STEAD model — integrating Security, Technology, Economics, Alliances, and Diplomacy — to secure U.S. leadership across critical domains.
Strategic Framing
- Traditional alliances like NATO, Five Eyes, and longstanding U.S. bilateral security treaties have preserved peace and order for decades.
- But 21st-century strategic competition demands alliances that are broader, more agile, and geoeconomically integrated.
- Modernizing traditional alliances means:
- Expanding missions beyond military deterrence into technology, supply chain, energy, and innovation domains.
- Enhancing economic security, cyber resilience, and innovation interoperability among allies.
- Aligning standards and regulatory approaches to emerging technologies like AI, quantum, and digital governance.
Why It Matters
- Multiplying strength across new domains: Defense alliances must now also secure economic and technological leadership.
- Deterring coercion through economic solidarity: Joint resilience reduces exposure to authoritarian leverage.
- Preserving a rules-based order: Defending democratic principles in trade, tech standards, and infrastructure investment.
Key Actions
- Embed innovation and economic resilience planning within NATO frameworks (e.g., DIANA).
- Expand U.S.-Japan, U.S.-South Korea, and Five Eyes partnerships into critical technology and infrastructure domains.
- Institutionalize cyber defense, data protection, and critical supply chain security in traditional alliance structures.
🏛️ Engaging Administration or Congress, 📰 Op-Ed / Article / Quoted 🎙️ Podcast ✍️ Policy Brief 👥 Roundtable / Event 🎤 Speaking 🎥 TV/Video 🌐 Global
NATO
Expanding into cyber, innovation (DIANA), energy resilience, defense supply chain coordination.
Five Eyes (U.S., UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand)
Beyond intelligence-sharing: tech standards, cyber defense, innovation security cooperation.
U.S.-Japan Security Alliance
Deepening on semiconductors, AI, cyber defense, critical minerals, space cooperation.
U.S.-South Korea Alliance
Expanding into semiconductors (Samsung fabs), energy transition, AI R&D.
U.S.-Australia Alliance
Critical in AUKUS tech initiatives; minerals, AI, clean energy innovation.
Strengthening Critical Strategic Partnerships: Taiwan
- While not a formal treaty ally, Taiwan remains one of America's most critical strategic partners. Through the Taiwan Relations Act and consistent bipartisan support, the United States has maintained a robust relationship focused on strengthening Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities, supporting its innovation leadership — particularly in semiconductors — and enhancing its resilience against authoritarian pressure.
- Modernizing this partnership is essential to securing a free and open Indo-Pacific. As strategic competition intensifies, Taiwan's security, economic vitality, and technological leadership represent vital pillars in sustaining regional stability, protecting critical global supply chains, and reinforcing the broader network of democratic cooperation.