[ilstormcloud]

5 eyes are more of client states than partners at this point. That's not to say they have no utility, far from it, I think they are very potent. It's just that 'partner' is not the right word to describe them. I say this mainly because they don't seem to have opinions about foreign policy other than the one set by the USA. A better example of a partner in my opinion would be Germany, or France. As for NATO, The only countries that need it are the USA, UK and the Eastern European countries. For western and southern Europe, NATO seems like a gym membership they haven't gotten to canceling. That's not to say member states are not partners or friends of USA, just that they know they can create something better for the current reality. Change was always inevitable, but GWB and Trump might have accelerated it to reckless speeds.

[teruakohatu]

My country, New Zealand, is in the 5 eyes. Other than intelligence, we have very little military interaction with the USA. Apparently they won't even allow us to buy high tech gear because we ban US Navy nuke ships from visiting. We are a long way off from being a client state.

[prawn]

But probably not big enough to be a partner?

(I'm from Australia and would consider the "client state" assessment for us to be fair.)