It has given up any pretence of political and military independence. It has become a base for the US military and is increasingly integrated into imperialism’s financial networks willing to adopt the ideological and diplomatic positions of the imperialist powers.

Imperialist alliances endanger peace because they bind states into military blocs whose very purpose is to prepare for conflict, enforce spheres of influence, and dismantle opposition to imperialism’s agenda of perpetual war. These alliances are not neutral security arrangements but instruments through which the capitalist powers impose their interests on the world.

Those countries which participate are engaging in escalating cycles of military exercises, sanctions, foreign deployments over which they may have no control, increasing military spending to meet “interoperability” or “readiness” requirements, enriching arms manufacturers and deepening the militarisation of society and economies while compelling members of the alliance to purchase weapons, host bases and divert resources from social needs to armaments and the instruments of war.

Imperialist alliances are not mere diplomatic arrangements. They are weapons forged by the capitalist class ruling classes to divide the world in their interests, weaken the unity of workers and suffocate the self determination of oppressed and exploited peoples. Their purpose is not peace, security and co-operation but rather to act as the armed fist of the monopolies through permanent militarisation and coercion for the management of global exploitation.

CONSEQUENCES FOR THE WORKING CLASS

The consequences for the working class and the people are conveniently ignored. The question of war is inseparable from the question of workers’ rights. In situations of imperialist war, it is the working class which pays the price. History shows that imperialist alliances sold as devices for “collective security,” “deterrence,” or “stability” consistently have the opposite effect.

We are faced with the devastating effects of war on people, flora and fauna and the environment; the misery of mass migration by those forced to flee poverty and war; the resources wasted on weapons instead of healthcare, housing, social security, education or climate resilience; the normalisation of militarism and war through media, education and political discourse. These costs fall on workers and their families, sacrificed for interests they never chose, not on the capitalist class and their agents who design these strategies for war.