Thats how I would expect it to happen to, but then I live in a tiny country in Scandinavia which would have no chance at all of defending itself if didn't have

Thats how I would expect it to happen to, but then I live in a tiny country in Scandinavia which would have no chance at all of defending itself if didn't have an alliance with the US. An alliance the US gets almost nothing out of. The US is committed to defending Taiwan as if it was its native soil, despite it being basically on the other side of the planet and posing no significant strategic benefit. The US has such treaties with a ton of countries (http://www.state.gov/s/l/treaty/collectivedefense/ http://www.state.gov/s/l/treaty/collectivedefense/). Despite this the US "wins" the international relations game completely (if we go with the KvK definition that war is politics by other means and its aim is to enforce its will on somebody else).