"Strategic partnerships in alliance politics: Introducing the Global Strategic Partnership dataset" by CWP alum Ronan Tse-min Fu

Since the 1990s, strategic partnerships have emerged as a new foreign policy tool that allows more flexibility in international cooperation. This paper distinguishes strategic partnerships from alliances and alignments by introducing the Global Strategic Partnership dataset. In addition to presenting the trends in their global proliferation, we examine the patterns of strategic partnerships in the top six countries with the most partnership agreements. We find that the United States significantly increases trade and arms transfers with its non-allied partners compared with its allied partners, suggesting that strategic partnerships can enhance economic and security cooperation in ways that complement traditional alliances.

First published online October 22, 2025 - Strategic partnerships in alliance politics: Introducing the Global Strategic Partnership dataset Nien-chung Chang-Liao - [email protected], Ronan Tse-min Fu, and Shane Hsuan-Yu Lin  -  https://doi.org/10.1177/07388942251385542 

I am an Assistant Research Fellow in the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica (IPSAS). Prior to joining IPSAS, I have been a postdoctoral research fellow in the Columbia-Harvard China and the World Program and the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University.

I specialize in the intersection of international relations theory, political psychology, qualitative and experimental methods, with a focus on US-China interactions, cross-Strait relations, and East Asian security.

My work has appeared or is forthcoming in British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Conflict Management and Peace Science, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Political Geography, and Political Psychology.

Photo Credit: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/07388942251385542