Is relying on alliances still a good strategy?

[Nik]

Military alliances is an excellent weapons sales club. And changing a supplier may result in an outcry like we see in the situation, surrounding Turkey's (a NATO member) purchase of Russian S-400.
However, we hear voices for the need of independent defense capabilities.
We heard such voices in Europe and I read now that Australia too may be looking into upgrading its own defenses and maybe even going nuclear:
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/170...
Don't know whether Bangkok post is absolutely reliable on this count, but I trust our friends from Australia can correct the inaccuracies, if such exist.
Just when the world seemed to become a peaceful and understanding place, all of a sudden military ambitions spring back.
What do you think?

[Ian]

Nik, since I am in NZ I am not exactly well placed to comment on Australia, but the NZ news does tend to pay a lot of attention to Oz, I have heard nothing of nuclear ambitions, so I am taking that with a grain of salt. However Australia does have its own defence industries, and NZ has previously purchased corvettes, etc from them. However, Australia tries to maintain a strong alliance with the US.

[Leonie]

There was a radio program that speculated about this. But I don't think there was anything particularly factual recently.

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/...