Wauke is correct on the Alliance biz. That is, both you and the race with which you want to ally must BOTH have completed that research. Note that the other race and you must be at the "close" level before one can form an alliance. If you get to that point and "Alliance" is not one of the choices, then you probably have to trade them the "Alliances" tech first.
Do not close out from the screen after you make that trade, though, or you will have to wait (or reboot) to be able to form the alliance. The "Alliance" choice should show up as soon as you make the trade.
You will not be able to make such a trade if you have disabled tech trading in the game setup choices.
One last point, you can give only one economic and one research treaty. So, if that choice does not show in the other race's choices, then they probably already have that treaty with another race.