The United States has conceived of itself as a leading Pacific nation since the middle of the 19th Century. The region’s importance is even greater today, as its explosive economic growth since the 1980s has translated into geopolitical relevance. The rivalry between the United States and China, especially although not exclusively, has made the Indo-Pacific central to American defense policy. Closing technical and military resource gaps coupled with exhaustion from the War on Terror has pushed the country to emphasize alliances and partnerships as unique advantages which the US can leverage to maintain its influence in this critical region. A strategy founded on aligning the interests of like-minded countries also means that it is looking to expand the number of partners that are also invested in limiting China’s influence and upholding the status quo of Western-founded rules that underpin the current international system. Ideally, for the United States, NATO allies would join it in upholding this so-called rules-based international order in a region that has traditionally been outside the scope of NATO interests. This presentation outlines American investment in the Indo-Pacific, debates the meaning of a democratic alliance and its centrality in American foreign policy, and places the increasing role of NATO in the region in the context of this broadening yet flexible alliance structure. It serves therefore, as a first reflection on American policy in attempts to construct a broad democratic alliance in the Indo-Pacific.