It's a long overdue correction. Alliances were not just big promises and handshakes and expectations of blind loyalty (and doing the right thing).

They were power structures forged in quid pro quo deals that continuously benefited the parties.

As the cold war, uh, thawed to room temperature and China became the new focus the old alliance deals started to make no sense. Now that suddenly the kleptocratic gas station attendant feels insecure the old alliance starts to make sense again, but the underlying deals might need a bit of tweaking.