Online Event: Book Talk with Mira Rapp-Hooper on Shields of the Republic: The Triumph and Peril of America's Alliances

The event will be webcast live from this page

Today the United States’ alliance system is threatened from without and within. China and Russia seek to break America’s alliances through conflict and non-military erosion. Meanwhile, U.S. politicians and voters are increasingly skeptical of alliances’ costs and benefits and believe we may be better off without them.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies invites you to join a conversation with Mira Rapp-Hooper on her new book on U.S. alliances. In Shields of the Republic, Rapp-Hooper reveals the remarkable success of America’s unprecedented system of alliances. During the Cold War, a grand strategy focused on allied defense, deterrence, and assurance helped to keep the peace at far lower material and political costs than its critics allege. When the Soviet Union collapsed, however, the United States lost the adversary the system was designed to combat. Its alliances remained without a core strategic logic, leaving them newly vulnerable.

Rapp-Hooper argues that America’s national security requires alliances that deter and defend against military and non-military conflict alike, and the current alliance system is due for a post-Cold War overhaul.

This event was made possible through ­­­­­­­­­­­general support to CSIS.

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Kathleen H. Hicks

Senior Vice President; Henry A. Kissinger Chair; Director, International Security Program