doe it matter how many allies are displayed in game?
they could be all together on 3rd party chat or over Skype or any other voice chat, working together like 1 team and never be "allies" in game which other can see.
real life example:
2 countries can decide to be best buddies, but never tell it to rest of world, ofcourse world will find out eventually, but they dont have ever officially confirm it.
Ours has as few allies as possible. ^^ Because we like our freedom. Treaties are supposed to engage both parties responsibilities and our word is gold, so having a treaty with us means both sides are trustful to each other.
But I personnally have too many friends from everywhere to be able to count them.
This is not contradictory. :)