Mike is joined by Abe Denmark, Director of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center, and Mira Rapp-Hooper, Senior Fellow for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, to discuss the past, present, and future of the U.S. alliance system in the Indo-Pacific. What are the major strategic decision points facing the U.S. and its allies in the Indo-Pacific? Is present friction within the alliance network emblematic of the current administration or broader, more systemic issues? Mike, Mira, and Abe frame the discussion around Mira and Abe's new books on alliances: Mira's "Shields of the Republic" and Abe's "U.S. Strategy in the Asian century."