The pageantry unfolding in Washington this week, and again this summer, will speak volumes about the U.S. and its changing role in the world, as telegraphed through its alliances.
It signals what’s worked best about American leadership since World War II, but also how that model must be updated for a new century and how all American-led alliances must be proofed in case an isolationist should ever enter the White House, perhaps even next year.
On Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden was set to host a historic summit with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines, Fumio Kishida and Ferdinand "Bongbong” Marcos. Each country is a long-time bilateral treaty ally of the U.S. and both are now also converging into a new trilateral arrangement. It’s one of several "minilateral” partnerships that Biden is building in the Indo-Pacific. And all of those are intended to form a "lattice” of interwoven relations, meant to deter Beijing from trying to isolate or attack any nation in the region.