This week, I’m getting married in France. I should be writing my vows, but instead I’m writing this column, though the concept of marriage is still on my mind.
Being a foreign policy nerd, it occurs to me that the closest approximation to marriage in international affairs is an alliance.
Partnerships, among people and nations, have a wide range of possible meanings and scope. But alliances are formal agreements that indicate a specific kind of commitment, such as marriage. An alliance is a promise between nations to support and defend each other, in good times and bad, sickness and health, or more specifically, peace time or war.
