Alignment strategies

Alignment refers to the ways a state pursues its national security and other key interests through engaging with other states.

For Snyder, alignment corresponds with the “expectations of states about whether they will be supported or opposed by other states in future interactions” (Snyder 1997, p. 6).

According to Edström and Westberg, “[a]lignment strategies refer to different ways of interacting on a political level with other states and organizations to promote national interests relating to security, influence and status. This aspect of strategy is a part of a state’s external efforts to promote [its] perceived interest” (Edström & Westberg, 2022, p. 98).

In the literature various strategies have been recognized. Balancing, bandwagoning, hedging, neutrality, non-alignment, multi-alignment.