Abstract
Wedge strategies – negotiation strategies that seek to prevent or weaken adversarial alignments – are increasingly used in contemporary power competition. Scholars often examine how China and Russia challenge U.S. interests, and how the United States seeks to prevent unfavorable outcomes and shape power dynamics. However, the U.S. use of wedge strategies in this context, and the design of wedge strategies more broadly, have been largely overlooked. To address this gap, we develop an analytical framework to examine the choice of wedge strategies. We apply it to investigate the U.S. choice of wedge strategies in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and in the Indo-Pacific. Our analysis outlines the challenges of designing wedge strategies and the need to rethink factors that make them effective, particularly as the United States encounters alignments like brics . It stresses the importance of broadening wedging options and mapping their strategic and operational aspects.