Foreign Alliances Not In Disarray

Charles Krauthammer, writing in the Boston Herald, makes the point that all of the Democrats' wailing about key foreign alliances in disarray is either just wrong, or out of date, or both. While certain of the positive relationships he mentions may be deteriorating (c.f., Australia, Germany), his general thrust is correct. He concludes:

The critics will say that all this is simply attributable to the rise of Russia and China causing old allies to turn back to us out of need. So? I would even add that the looming prospect of a nuclear Iran has caused Arab states to rally to us. All true. And it makes the point that the Bush critics have missed - that the strength of alliances is heavily dependent on the objective balance of global forces, and has very little to do with the syntax of the U.S. president or the disdain in which he might be held by a country’s cultural elites.

That is realpolitik, served up cold. The article is worth your time, Dr. K pulls together some good thoughts.