Do international alliances always make the world safer, or can they sometimes lead to more tension?

I believe that international alliances don’t always make the world safer. And more often leads to more tension between countries.

A perfect reason for my opinion is evidence in History which are the two world wars. Before WWI Europe was divided into two main alliance systems called the triple entente and the triple alliance. These alliances forced all the countries to declare war on each other when Austro-Hungary invaded Serbia, starting a global war killing almost 22 million people. After world war one, the world came together to form the league of nations aiming to bring peace to the world again. But apparently the League of Nations failed to prevent another war from happening as they acted poorly against the aggressive acts of Italy and WW2 came to kill more people than the first war. These two wars alone show how when countries try to form alliances it brings the opposite of global security and safety.

But can’t some people say humans have changed a lot since the 1900s and we won’t repeat our mistakes of the past. This is a good idea but not ideal to prove that alliances always make the world safer. Because there is modern day evidence that alliances still don’t make the world completely safe. Look at how NATO responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. If NATO were to respond appropriately, Russia shouldn’t have been able to send a full scale invasion into Ukrainian territory. Even though NATO has shown glimpses of success and keeping Europe and the world safe, they have had some failures. This shows that an alliance even with the world's strongest powers can’t always prevent war, conflict and danger.

Looking at the other side of the argument some people may think that for countries to achieve absolute security, all the countries have to be on the same page. An alliance between nations lets the countries find ways to make the world more safe without misunderstanding. But once again we have to come back to the fact that most countries won’t care about global security and collective agreements more than their own needs and interests.

In conclusion, international alliances are more likely to cause tension and war between countries than actually making the world safer. It is impossible to get rid of all the safety issues but the individual work and desire of countries can help solve as much as possible.