Visiting Tan Ah Tah Professorial Lecture - False Friend: The Frailties and Pathologies of Alliances

Event Date

From Tuesday 11 Aug 2026 - 05:30 PM To Tuesday 11 Aug 2026 - 07:00 PM

Venue

Yale-NUS Hall, University Town (Kent Ridge Campus)

Organiser

National University of Singapore Faculty of Law

Practice Area

International Law

MEC segment

Training Level

Foundation

Public CPD Points

Event Outline

Modern geopolitics has thrown the question of alliances into sharp relief. We habitually valorise alliances as guarantees of security and friendship, binding states into a shared future. Yet alliances also harbour pathologies: they can drag states into war, suffer from a credible-commitment problem, and vary in equality. The lecture pursues Montesquieu’s intuition that alliances must be seen as just to bind; when one party commands and the other complies, trust erodes and costly power follows.

Event Link

Event Attachment

NUS-260376_EventBrochure.pdf