The George W. Bush Institute’s Malign Alignment: How China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea (CRINK) threaten U.S. and our allies project analyzes how these four countries’ growing partnerships challenge the United States’ leadership, global stability, and peace.
Olivia Hernandez:
The George W. Bush Institute’s malign alignment – how China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea threaten the U.S. and our allies – analyzes how these four countries’ growing partnerships challenge the United States’ leadership, global stability, and peace. We’re here today with the Bush Institute’s Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau, the Bradford M. Freeman Managing Director of Global Policy at the Bush Institute, to discuss the importance of those alliances.
Hi, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau:
Hey, Olivia. How are you today? It’s great to see you.
Olivia Hernandez:
You too. Okay, so, we’re here to talk about CRINK, and so can you just tell me what are the issues that we’re looking at when it comes to CRINK?
Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau:
Well, we’re looking at a lot of issues. And I’m really glad that the Bush Institute is launching this project right now because – especially with the geopolitical environment – CRINK is really putting a strain on U.S. alliances, and I think that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
Olivia Hernandez:
So, what solutions do you see when it comes to CRINK?
Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau:
So, what you have with CRINK is you have this malign alignment of countries. It’s not a traditional alliance, but you do have them cooperating in areas like exchanges of military hardware, cyber cooperation, surveillance, technology, and energy support.
So, as the United States – and our allies and friends – create a plan to counter this alignment, there’s a couple things we can do: first, we need to reinvest in our alliances. And that’s transparency, that’s consultation, that’s coordination. At its very core, alliances are a question of deterrence, especially alliances like NATO, which are defensive alliances. So, if the United States – as well as our allies and partners and other members of the alliance – reinvest in those core principles that strengthens our deterrence factor.
Secondly, I would say that we need to reinvest in interoperability: and that’s not just our military coordination but also our defense production. You know, as CRINK and the individual components of that alignment increase their own defense capability, we need to have our allies in the United States invest in our own self-defense, but coordinate in either niche defense production capabilities, but also take a look at regional stability. There are some countries that have stronger ties in certain areas of the world, and that’s what alliances do. They allow us to leverage that.
Olivia Hernandez:
So, my last question is why do alliances and partnerships matter?
Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau:
Olivia, you know, this is my favorite question that you ever ask me. And it comes down to a simple thing: America’s national security rests on the strength of our alliances and partners.
It’s very simple: America is better with friends. We speak with a stronger voice. We represent more stability regionally. And also, our own policy and our own national security goals are better informed when we work collectively with people who have regional expertise.
