How Important Are Foreign Alliances?

April 15, 2025

As the global landscape evolves, the dynamics of power, trade and diplomacy are increasingly interlinked. Are alliances with other countries essential to U.S. safety, security, and economic success? Are we best served by an America first approach? In this episode, our hosts, former Tennessee Governors Phil Bredesen and Bill Haslam, and their guests, Rahm Emanuel, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, White House Chief of Staff, Congressman, and Mayor of Chicago, and Michael Kimmage, a historian and former State Department official, discuss the pros and cons of foreign alliances and the new international order.

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“A lot of reciprocity”

Emanuel reflected on his service as U.S. Ambassador to Japan, including the political, security, and economic benefits that can result from strong relationships with other countries.

“Japan is the number one foreign direct investor in the United States for the last four years…They employ a million Americans, of which about a little over half a million are just in the manufacturing and industrial space,” he said. “So, to me, there’s a lot of reciprocity here that has accrued benefit to the United States. And they host the United States armed forces and make our deterrence, which is to prevent war, actually have credibility.”

He shared that his view of foreign policy has changed a “tremendous amount” since he served as senior to President Clinton in the late 1990s. “If you go pull articles then, people were talking about a unipolar world where the United States was the superior economic, military, and political country of the world,” he explained.

As to where we stand today, Emanuel noted that while the U.S. remains a unique country and the benchmark for other counties to measure their own progress against, “we lost the confidence of the American people, and we need to earn it back.”

“We have failed our own people by not investing in our communities, not investing in our political system, allowing our politics to become kind of like a version of the Game of Thrones and Braveheart battle. And I participated in that,” he said. “I think the best way to stay strong abroad is to invest in America at home.”

 “What can you trust or what can you expect?”

Kimmage, a professor at Catholic University, offered historical context for our current moment. While noting our current posture is “the most intensive phase of retrenchment that I can think of,” the U.S. has gone through periods of being more withdrawn from – or engaged with – the rest of the world, he told the governors. He also said that while it is “being driven with a new intensity,” the argument that Europe should pay more for its defense spending is not new and has been raised by past presidents of both parties.

Regardless of whether recent changes are the right thing to do or not, he warned that there are consequences.

“The very abruptness of the shift exacts a certain cost…because there’s this sense of whiplash on the part of allies and partners of the United States that the U.S. is one thing under one administration and very much another thing under another administration. So, what can you trust or what can you expect?” Kimmage said. “This image of the U.S. as less and less reliable is a key factor among allies and partners and a very difficult one.”

Ultimately, he views tone of voice as key. “You could, I guess, argue that you really have to be sharp to get the Europeans to move. And actually, Europe is moving in new ways over the last couple of weeks. But I think tone of voice is very important for alliance maintenance, and I have concerns there at the moment,” he added.

“Power vacuums get filled”

What should America’s role in the world be? Emanuel emphasized that American leadership abroad still matters, and turning inward simply isn’t an option in today’s world. “As the old saying goes, you can think you can leave the Middle East, but the Middle East will find you—and the world will find us,” he said.

Retreating from global engagement, he warned, creates space for adversaries to gain influence. “Power vacuums get filled,” he said. “And I’d rather have a centrifugal force of power around America’s interests than around Russia or China, who are clearly trying to harm us.”

Kimmage pointed out that there are upsides to a less ideals-based approach. “If you need to deal with Saudi Arabia, you can do so regardless of what the form of government is in Saudi Arabia. If you want to conduct diplomacy with Russia about ending the war in Ukraine, you can do so on a very pragmatic footing…the flexibility that a less values-based approach gives you is pretty extraordinary.”