If you had 2 countries that signed a peace treaty/agreement between each other, and one of those countries chose to declara war on a third different country… is the other country in the peace treaty forced to back them as allies or are their hands washed since the other broke peace even against a different country?
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There’s different kinds of peace treaties. There’s _ceasefires_, which just means we’ll stop firing at each other currently. Then there’s _armstices_, which formally means where gonna stop pitting military forces against each others. Then there’s stuff like _non aggression pacts_ that just mean hey whatever happens we’re not gonna fight each other. That’s how the fighting is regulated.
The actual treaty document can include other provisions such as promises of cooperation and mutual efforts to foster growth and trade etc etc.
One signer of a treaty is not obligated to go to war neither with or against another signer if that second signer declares war on a third party. The third party wasn’t part of the document, unless they were an ally who you already probably have an existing treaty with for _mutual defense_ that would take precedence and probably thus be included in the new peace treaty you are hoping to sign (in any case, if you did have a mutual defense pact with that third party, they’d already be at war with your enemy anyway).
Neutral third parties who had nothing to with the peace treaty are fair game. I don’t have to help you unless I agreed in the treaty that I would. It’s also not a violation against me, so I’m not obligated to take up arms in defense either.
To sum up:
Ceasefires literally ceasefire.
Armstices cease warfare.
Non aggression pacts means we won’t be aggressive to each other.
Defense pacts means we’ll come to each other’s aid.
The actual “peace treaty” may include any number of these types of provisions, it’s up to the signers to choose how deep they want the relationship to be.
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