Alliances, 1815–1945: Weapons of Power and Tools of Management

Abstract

Though the term “alliance” has often been used loosely to mean simply “friendship” or “working partnership,”¹ jurists and theorists have long insisted on a narrower definition, according to which an alliance is a treaty binding two or more independent states to come to each other’s aid with armed force under circumstances specified in the casus foederis article of the treaty. Whether offensive or defensive, limited or unlimited, equal or unequal, bilateral or multilateral, alliances must involve some measure of commitment to use force to achieve a common goal.²