Being part of the U.S. “alliance” is less and less about incentives and more and more about compulsion. From Russell Clark at russell-clark.com:
The deal that the US is offering the rest of the world is becoming less and less attractive
The US led free world (Western Europe, Japan and Australia) during the cold war were offered a pretty good deal. Mutual economic access (to a degree) and US military protection. In return the US got to set the majority of the economic terms. This was a very good deal for all involved. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and communism, this deal was extended to more countries. Eastern Europe, rest of Asia, and most notable from 2000 onwards China. The problem is that the US is reneging on its part of the deal.
As the War in Ukraine drags on, it’s increasingly clear that the US cannot guarantee security, a continuation of the problems in both Afghanistan and Iraq. As pointed out in the note on Australia, the US is now asking Australia to spend 50% of its defence budget for the next 30 years to supply the US with a nuclear submarine refuelling station in Perth. This has two negatives. Firstly it risks Australian access to the Chinese market, which is far larger than the US market for Australia. And it starves other parts of the Australian military of funds.
Was it ever “ours” to begin with?
Arrogance, hubris, false sense of entitlement, are put there for a reason.
Is the U.S. losing the world? We can only hope so!