International organizations and alliances that structure cooperation and competition between states.
8 articles
The trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, centered on providing Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. AUKUS signals a hardening Western posture toward China and a restructuring of Indo-Pacific alliances.
BRICS brings together Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—and since 2024, an expanded membership—as a platform for emerging economies to coordinate positions, develop alternatives to Western-dominated institutions, and project a vision of multipolar global governance.
The transatlantic military alliance binding North America and Europe in collective defense, NATO has evolved from a Cold War bulwark against Soviet expansion into the primary security framework for the Euro-Atlantic region, now confronting renewed great power competition and questions about its future role.
The strategic forum linking the United States, Japan, Australia, and India in loose coordination against Chinese assertiveness. The Quad represents the emergence of minilateral cooperation in an era of great power competition.
The Chinese and Russian-led organization encompassing Central Asia and increasingly the broader Eurasian landmass. The SCO represents an alternative to Western-led security architecture—though its coherence and effectiveness remain debated.
The fifteen-member body with primary responsibility for international peace and security—and the only UN organ whose decisions are legally binding. The P5 veto system reflects 1945's power realities, creating both stability and paralysis.
Founded in 1966 to foster economic growth in post-colonial Asia, the Asian Development Bank has evolved into a major instrument of regional development and, critics argue, of American and Japanese geopolitical influence. Its role has grown more complex with the emergence of China's rival Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
The New Development Bank, established by BRICS nations in 2014, represents an institutional challenge to Western-dominated development finance, offering infrastructure lending with equal governance among founding members, local currency options, and an expanding focus on green investment.