Rajan Menon’s The End of Alliances reads more like a treatise on diplomatic history that continues into the near future than an IR book with policy implications. The End of Alliances starts at the early years of the republic and looks at historic isolationism (which he repeats was too involved to be called isolationism), the formation of the containment set of alliances, and then looks at the current state of NATO, Japan, and South Korea. I kept looking for the policy recommendations, but never really found them. He devotes the last 13 pages to policy, but only sets out a generic, realist, anti-Bush policy that’s so en vogue right now. One thing to look out for is that the book can be a bit dry–I love this sort of thing and I found myself struggling to finish some chapters.
The underlying theory behind The End of Alliances is sound. The US followed different doctrines before containment led us to eschew our distrust of entangling alliances, and we will undoubtedly follow different doctrines in the future. The NATO chapter is especially strong, and still has me thinking (you may see a post about it later in the month…). The bilateral chapters are a bit weaker. The Japanese-American alliance is as mutually beneficial as ever, and while I don’t disagree with Menon that it will change at some point in the future, that hardly seems revelatory. South Korea fascinates me, and while I agree that that alliance is quickly dying, I don’t know if it’s for the same reasons. Despite these drawbacks, both chapters are worth reading. My only quarrel with the book is that I kept hoping that The End of Alliances would offer a view of the future grand strategy. Unfortunately, it never did. The book is excellent, just make sure you’re looking for history and prediction rather than policy.
