The
Special Relationship is a phrase often used to describe the exceptionally close political, diplomatic, cultural and historical relations between the United States and the United Kingdom, following its use in a 1946 speech by British
statesmanA statesman or stateswoman or statesperson is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
. While both countries maintain close relationships with many others, the level of cooperation in military planning, execution of military operations, nuclear weapons technology and intelligence sharing with each other was often described as "unparalleled" among major powers. The special relationship was most recently demonstrated by British support for the
US-led invasion of IraqThe 2003 invasion of Iraq, was led by the United States, backed by British forces and smaller contingents from Australia, Denmark, Poland and Spain. Four countries participated with troops during the initial invasion phase, which lasted from March 20 to May 1...
.
Churchillian creation
The existence of a special relationship between the two governments was recognized since the nineteenth century, not least by rival powers. Their troops had been fighting side by side—sometimes spontaneously—in skirmishes overseas since 1859, and the two
democraciesLiberal democracy is the dominant form of democracy in the 21st century. During the Cold War, liberal democracies were contrasted with the Communist People's Republics or "Popular Democracies", which claimed an alternative conception of democracy...
shared a common bond of sacrifice in
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
.
However, as
David ReynoldsDavid Reynolds is Professor of International History and a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. He was educated at Dulwich College, then Cambridge and Harvard Universities. He has held visiting posts at Harvard, Nebraska and Oklahoma, as well as at Nihon University in Tokyo...
observes: ‘For most of the
period since 1919The interwar period is understood, within recent Western culture, to be the period between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War. This is also called the period between the wars or interbellum....
, Anglo-American relations had been cool and often suspicious. America’s “betrayal” of the
League of NationsThe League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
was only the first in a series of US actions—over war debts, naval rivalry, the 1931-2 Manchurian crisis and the
DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
—that convinced British leaders that the United States could not be relied on.’ Equally, as President
TrumanHarry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice-president and the 34th Vice President of the United States, he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
's secretary of state,
Dean AchesonDean Gooderham Acheson was an American statesman and lawyer; as United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Harry S. Truman during 1949–1953, he played a central role in defining American foreign policy during the Cold War...
, recalled: 'Of course a unique relation existed between Britain and America—our common language and history insured that. But unique did not mean affectionate. We had fought England as an enemy as often as we had fought by her side as an ally.'
Arguably, 'the
fall of FranceIn World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed from 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations...
in 1940 was decisive in shaping the pattern of
international politicsInternational relations or International studies represents the study of foreign affairs and global issues among states within the international system, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , non-governmental organizations , and multinational corporations...
', leading the special relationship to displace the
entente cordialeThe Entente-cordiale is a series of agreements signed on 8 April 1904 between the United Kingdom and France. Beyond the immediate concerns of colonial expansion addressed by the agreement, the signing of the Entente cordiale marked the end of almost a millennium of intermittent conflict between the...
as the
pivotPivot may refer to* Pivot, the fulcrum as part of a lever* Pivot joint, a kind of joint between bones in the body* Pivot turn, a dance moveIn computing:* Pivot, an element of the quicksort algorithm...
of the international system. During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, as an observer noted, 'Great Britain and the United States integrated their military efforts to a degree unprecedented among major allies in the history of warfare.' 'Each time I must choose between you and
RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
,' shouted British Prime Minister
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
at General
Charles de GaulleCharles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II...
, leader of the Free French, in 1945, 'I shall choose Roosevelt.'
Churchill's mother was American, and he felt keenly the links between the
English-speaking peoplesA History of the English-Speaking Peoples is a four-volume history of Britain and her former colonies and possessions throughout the world, written by Winston Churchill, covering the period from Caesar's invasions of Britain to the beginning of the First World War...
. He first used the term 'special relationship' in 1945 to describe not the Anglo-American relationship alone but the United Kingdom's relationship with both the United States and Canada. The New York
Times Herald quoted Churchill in November 1945:
Churchill used the phrase again a year later, at the onset of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
, this time to note the special relationship between the United States on the one hand, and the
English-speaking nations-Definitions:According to a post on Word Spy, a blog on unusual words, the term was first used by author Neal Stephenson in his 1995 novel The Diamond Age. Stephenson did not use the term in any specific geopolitical sense but rather to describe a fictional race called the Atlantans who, when...
of the
British CommonwealthThe Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values...
and
EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
under the leadership of the United Kingdom on the other. The occasion was his 'Sinews of Peace Address' in
Fulton, MissouriFulton is a city in Callaway County, Missouri, the United States of America. It is part of the Jefferson City, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 12,128 in the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Callaway County...
, on 5 March 1946:
In the opinion of one international relations specialist: 'the United Kingdom's success in obtaining US commitment to cooperation in the
postwarA post-war period is the interval immediately following the ending of a war and enduring as long as war does not resume. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum when a war between the same parties resumes at a later date...
world was a major triumph, given the isolation of the
interwar periodThe interwar period is understood, within recent Western culture, to be the period between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War. This is also called the period between the wars or interbellum....
. A senior British diplomat in
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
,
Thomas BrimelowThomas Brimelow, Baron Brimelow, GCMG, OBE was a British diplomat. He was Permanent Under-Secretary at the British Foreign Office in 1973-75 and Member of the European Parliament in 1977-78....
, admitted: 'The one quality which most disquiets the
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
government is the ability which they attribute to us to get others to do our fighting for us ... they respect not us, but our ability to collect friends.' Conversely, 'the success or failure of United States foreign economic peace aims depended almost entirely on its ability to win or extract the co-operation of Great Britain'. Reflecting on the
symbiosisThe term symbosis commonly describes close and often long-term interactions between different biological species...
, a later champion, former prime minister
Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She is the only woman to have held either post....
, declared: 'The Anglo-American relationship has done more for the defence and future of freedom than any other alliance in the world.'
Military cooperation
The intense level of military co-operation began with the creation of the Combined Chiefs of Staff in December 1941, a military command with authority over all American and British operations. This cooperation has increased steadily since the early 1950s when military contacts were re-established.
Shared military bases
Since the Second World War and the subsequent
Berlin Blockade||-|}The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War and the first such crisis that resulted in casualties. During the multinational occupation of post-World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway and road access to the sectors of...
, the United States has maintained substantial forces in Great Britain. In July 1948, the first American deployment began with the stationing of
B-29 bomberThe Boeing B-29 Superfortress was a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber that was flown by the United States Military in World War II and the Korean War, and by other nations afterwards...
s. Currently, an important base is the
radarRadar is an object detection system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The term RADAR was coined in 1941 as an acronym for RAdio Detection And...
facility
RAF FylingdalesRAF Fylingdales is a British Royal Air Force station on Snod Hill in the North York Moors, England. Its motto is "Vigilamus" . It is a radar base and part of the United States-controlled Ballistic Missile Early Warning System...
, part of the US
Ballistic Missile Early Warning SystemThe United States Air Force Ballistic Missile Early Warning System was the first operational ballistic missile detection radar. The original system was built in 1959 and could provide long-range warning of a ballistic missile attack over the polar region of the northern hemisphere. They also...
, although this base is operated under entirely British command and has only one USAF representative for largely administrative reasons. Several bases with a significant US presence include RAF Menwith Hill (only a short distance from RAF Fylingdales),
RAF LakenheathRoyal Air Force Station Lakenheath, commonly abbreviated to RAF Lakenheath, is a Royal Air Force military airbase located near Lakenheath in Suffolk, England. Although technically an RAF station, it primarily hosts United States Air Force units and personnel...
and
RAF MildenhallRAF Mildenhall is a Royal Air Force station located at Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. Despite its status as an RAF station, it primarily supports United States Air Force operations. It is currently the home of the 100th Air Refueling Wing...
.
During the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
critics of the special relationship jocularly referred to the United Kingdom as the "biggest aircraft carrier in the world."
Following the end of the Cold War, which was the main rationale for their presence, the number of US facilities in the United Kingdom has been reduced in number in line with the
US militaryThe United States armed forces are the overall unified military forces of the United States.The history of the United States armed forces dates to 1775, even before the Declaration of Independence marked the establishment of the United States...
worldwide. Despite this, these bases have been used extensively in support of various
peacekeepingPeacekeeping, as defined by the United Nations, is "a way to help countries torn by conflict create conditions for sustainable peace." It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking....
and offensive operations of the 1990s and early 21st century.
The two nations also jointly operate a military facility on
Diego GarciaDiego García is an island considered the largest atoll, in terms of land area, of the Chagos Archipelago, and is part of the British Indian Ocean Territories. The island is located in the Indian Ocean, about 1,600 km south of the southern coast of India...
in the
British Indian Ocean TerritoryThe British Indian Ocean Territory or Chagos Islands is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Africa and Indonesia...
and on
Ascension IslandAscension Island is an isolated island of volcanic origin in the South Atlantic Ocean, around from the coast of Africa, and from the coast of South America. It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha which also includes Saint Helena, which is to...
, a dependency of
Saint HelenaSaint Helena , named after St Helena of Constantinople, is an island of volcanic origin in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha which also includes Ascension Island and the islands of Tristan da Cunha.The island...
in the Atlantic Ocean.
Nuclear weapons development
The
Quebec AgreementThe Quebec Agreement is an Anglo-Canadian-American document outlining the terms of nuclear nonproliferation between the United Kingdom and the United States, and signed by Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt on August 19, 1943, two years before the end of World War II, in Quebec City,...
of 1943 paved the way for the two countries to develop atomic weapons side by side, the United Kingdom handing over vital documents from its own
Tube AlloysTube Alloys was the code-name for the British nuclear weapon directorate during World War II, when the development of nuclear weapons was kept at such a high level of secrecy that it had to be referred to by code even in the highest circles of government...
project and sending a delegation to assist in the work of the
Manhattan ProjectThe Manhattan Project was the codename for a project conducted during World War II to develop the first atomic bomb. The project was led by the United States, and included scientists from Denmark, The United Kingdom and Canada...
. The United States later kept the results of the work to itself under the postwar McMahon Act, but after the United Kingdom developed its own thermonuclear weapons, the United States agreed to supply delivery systems, designs and nuclear material for British warheads through the
1958 US-UK Mutual Defence AgreementThe 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement is a bilateral treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom on nuclear weapons cooperation.It was signed after the UK successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb during Operation Grapple...
.
The United Kingdom purchased first Polaris and then the American
TridentThe Trident missile is a multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle submarine-launched ballistic missile designed by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in the United States which is armed with nuclear warheads and is launched from nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines...
system which remains in use today. The 1958 agreement gave the United Kingdom access to the facilities at the
Nevada Test SiteThe Nevada Test Site is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of the city of Las Vegas. Formerly known as the Nevada Proving Ground, the site, established on January 11, 1951, for the testing of nuclear devices, is composed of...
, and from 1963 it conducted a total of 21 underground tests there before the cessation of testing in 1991. The agreement under which this partnership operates was updated in 2004;
anti-nuclear activistsThe Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an organization that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by Britain. It also campaigns for international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
claimed renewal may breach the 1968
Nuclear Non-Proliferation TreatyThe Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is a treaty to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, opened for signature on July 1, 1968...
. The United States and the United Kingdom jointly conducted subcritical nuclear experiments in 2002 and 2006, to determine the effectiveness of existing stocks, as permitted under the 1998 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Military procurement
The United Kingdom is the only collaborative, or Level One, international partner in the largest US
aircraftAn aircraft is a vehicle which is able to fly by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to fly by being supported...
procurement project in history, the
F-35 Lightning IIThe Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a fifth-generation, single-seat, single-engine, stealth-capable multirole fighter, that can perform close air support, tactical bombing, and air defense missions...
program. The United Kingdom was involved in writing the specification and selection and its largest defense contractor
BAE SystemsBAE Systems plc is a British defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in Farnborough, Hampshire, England, that has global interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is the world's second-largest defence contractor and the largest in Europe...
is a partner of the American prime contractor
Lockheed MartinLockheed Martin is a multinational aerospace manufacturer, global security and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed with Martin Marietta. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area. Lockheed Martin employs 146,000 people...
. BAE Systems is also the largest foreign supplier to the United States Defense Department and has been permitted to buy important US defense companies such as
Lockheed Martin Aerospace Electronic SystemsLockheed Martin Aerospace Electronic Systems was a division of Lockheed Martin. Following a strategic review of Lockheed's businesses in 1999 the division was identified as a candidate for disposal...
and
United DefenseUnited Defense Industries was a United States defense contractor which is now part of BAE Systems Land and Armaments. This company produces combat vehicles, artillery, naval guns, missile launchers and precision munitions.-History:...
.
Other joint projects include the RAF Harrier GR9 or
United States Marine CorpsThe United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States armed forces responsible for providing force projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
AV-8B Harrier IIThe McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II is a family of second-generation vertical/short takeoff and landing or V/STOL ground-attack aircraft of the late 20th century...
and the
US NavyThe United States Navy is the sea branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. As of 31 December 2008, the U.S. Navy had about 331,682 personnel on active duty and 124,000 in the Navy Reserve. It operates 283 ships in active service and more than...
T-45 GoshawkThe T-45 Goshawk is a highly modified version of the BAE Hawk land-based training jet aircraft. Manufactured by McDonnell Douglas and British Aerospace , the T-45 is used by the United States Navy as an aircraft carrier-capable trainer.-Design and development:The T-45 Goshawk is a fully...
. The UK also operates several American designs, including the
Javelin anti-tank missileThe FGM-148 Javelin is an American-made man-portable anti-tank guided missile fielded to replace the Dragon antitank missile. -Overview:Javelin is a fire-and-forget missile with lock-on before launch and automatic self-guidance...
,
M270 rocket artilleryThe M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System is a multiple rocket launcher, a type of rocket artillery.The first rocket systems were delivered to the U.S. Army in 1983. The system is in widespread use in NATO countries and it has also been manufactured in Europe. Some 1,300 M270 systems have been...
, the
Apache gunshipThe AH-64 Apache is a four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopter with reverse-tricycle landing gear, and tandem cockpit for a crew of two. The Apache was developed as Model 77 by Hughes Helicopters for the United States Army's Advanced Attack Helicopter program to replace the AH-1 Cobra...
,
C-130 HerculesThe Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft built by Lockheed. Capable of takeoffs and landings from unprepared runways, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medical evacuation, and cargo transport aircraft...
and C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.
Intelligence sharing
A cornerstone of the special relationship is the collecting and sharing of intelligence. This originated during World War II with the sharing of code breaking knowledge and led to the
1943 BRUSA AgreementThe 1943 BRUSA Agreement was an agreement between the British and US governments to facilitate co-operation between the US War Department and the British Government Code and Cypher School...
, signed at
Bletchley ParkBletchley Park, also known as Station X, is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England. Since 1967, Bletchley has been part of Milton Keynes....
. After WWII the common goal of monitoring and countering the threat of communism prompted the UK-USA Security Agreement of 1948. This agreement brought together the
SIGINTSignals intelligence is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether between people or between machines , or mixtures of the two. As sensitive information is often encrypted, signals intelligence often involves the use of cryptanalysis...
organizations of the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and is still in place today. The head of the CIA station in London attends each weekly meeting of the British Joint Intelligence Committee.
One present-day example of such cooperation is the
UKUSA CommunityThe UK-USA Security Agreement is an agreement or treaty that established an alliance of five English-speaking countries for the purpose of sharing intelligence, especially signals intelligence. The alliance comprises Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States...
, comprising the USA's
National Security AgencyThe National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States government, administered as part of the United States Department of Defense. Created on November 4, 1952 by President Harry S...
, the United Kingdom's
Government Communications HeadquartersThe Government Communications Headquarters is a British intelligence agency responsible for providing signals intelligence and information assurance to the UK government and armed forces...
, Australia's
Defence Signals DirectorateDefence Signals Directorate is an Australian government intelligence agency responsible for signals intelligence and information security .-Overview:According to its , DSD has two principal functions:...
and Canada's
Communications Security EstablishmentThe Communications Security Establishment Canada is the Canadian government's national cryptologic intelligence agency...
collaborating on
ECHELONECHELON is a name used in global media and in popular culture to describe a signals intelligence collection and analysis network operated on behalf of the five signatory states to the UK-USA Security Agreement...
, a global intelligence gathering system. Under classified bilateral accords, UKUSA members do not spy on each other.
Following the discovery of the
2006 transatlantic aircraft plotThe 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot was a terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives carried on board at least 10 airliners travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada. The plot was discovered by UK police before it could be carried out, and as a result unprecedented...
, the CIA began to assist the
Security ServiceThe Security Service commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of the intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service , Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence Staff...
(MI5) by running its own agent networks in the British Pakistani community. Security sources estimate 40 per cent of CIA activity to prevent a terrorist attack in the United States involves operations inside the United Kingdom. One intelligence official commented on the threat against the United States from
British IslamistsIslam in the United Kingdom is about the development of Islam in the United Kingdom since its formation in 1707. Islam was not legalized until the Trinitarian Act in 1812, though Muslims were present prior to this...
: 'The fear is that something like this would not just kill people but cause a historic rift between the US and the UK.'
Economic policy
The United States is the largest source of
foreign direct investmentForeign direct investment in its classic form is defined as a company from one country making a physical investment into building a factory in another country. It is the establishment of an enterprise by a foreigner. Its definition can be extended to include investments made to acquire lasting...
to the British economy; likewise the United Kingdom is the largest single investor in the US economy. British trade and capital have been important components of the American economy since its colonial inception. In trade and finance, the special relationship has been described as 'well-balanced', with London's
'light-touch' regulation in recent years attracting a massive outflow of
capitalFinancial capital can refer to money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or provide their services or to that sector of the economy based on its operation, i.e. retail, corporate, investment banking, etc....
from
New YorkWall Street is a street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. It runs east from Broadway to South Street on the East River, through the historical center of the Financial District. It is the first permanent home of the New York Stock Exchange; over time Wall Street became the...
. The key sectors for British exporters to the United States are
aviationAviation is the activity involving man-made air-borne flying devices , including the people, organizations, and regulatory bodies involved with them.- History :...
,
aerospaceAerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
,
commercial propertyThe term commercial property refers to buildings or land intended to generate a profit, either from capital gain or rental income.-Definition:...
, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and heavy machinery. British ideas, classical and modern, have also exerted a profound influence on US economic policy, most notably
Adam SmithAdam Smith was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
on
free tradeFree trade is a type of trade policy that allows traders to act and transact without interference from government. According to the law of comparative advantage the policy permits trading partners mutual gains from trade of goods and services....
and
John Maynard KeynesJohn Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, CB was a British economist whose ideas have been a central influence on modern macroeconomics, both in theory and practice...
on
counter-cyclical spendingKeynesian economics is a macroeconomic theory based on the ideas of 20th-century British economist John Maynard Keynes...
, while the British government has adopted
workfareWorkfare is an alternative model to conventional social welfare systems. The term was first introduced by civil rights leader James Charles Evers in 1968; however, it was popularized by Richard Nixon in a televised speech August 1969. Traditional welfare benefits are available with little...
reforms from the United States. American and British investors share entrepreneurial attitudes towards the
housing marketReal estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings, specifically property that is fixed in location.
"Real estate" The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin...
, and the
fashionFashion is the style and custom prevalent at a given time. In its most common usage however, "fashion" describes the popular clothing style. Many fashions are popular in many cultures at any given time. Important is the idea that the course of design and fashion will change more rapidly than the...
and
musicPopular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to art music, and traditional music which was disseminated orally...
industries of each country are major influences on their counterparts. Trade ties have been strengthened by globalisation, while both governments agree on the need for currency reform in
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
and educational reform at home to increase their competitiveness against
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
's developing service industries. In 2007 the
US ambassadorRobert Holmes Tuttle is a former United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James's in the United Kingdom. He held the post from July 2005 to February 2009....
suggested to British business leaders that the special relationship could be used 'to promote
world tradeWorld Trade can refer to:*International trade*International finance*World Trade Organization*World Trade, a progressive rock band*World Trade Center...
and limit environmental damage as well as combating
terrorismTerrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.At present, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism...
'.
Personal relationships
The relationship often depends on the personal relations between British prime ministers and US presidents. The first example was the close relationship between
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
and Franklin Roosevelt who were in fact distantly related.
Prior to their collaboration during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Anglo-American relations had been somewhat frosty. President
Woodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States. A leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
and Prime Minister
David Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British statesman and the only Welsh Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; he is also the only one to have spoken English as a second language, Welsh having been his first.During a long tenure of office, mainly as Chancellor of the...
in
ParisThe Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors in World War I to set the peace terms for Germany and other defeated nations, and to deal with the empires of the defeated powers following the Armistice of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than...
had been the only previous leaders to meet face-to-face, but had enjoyed nothing that could be described as a special relationship, although Lloyd George's wartime Foreign Secretary,
Arthur BalfourArthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...
, got on well with Wilson during his time in the United States and helped convince the previously skeptical president to enter the war.
Churchill spent much time and effort cultivating the relationship which paid dividends for the war effort though it cost Britain much of her wealth and ultimately her empire. Two great architects of the special relationship on a practical level were Field Marshal Sir
John DillField Marshal Sir John Greer Dill, GCB, CMG, DSO was a British commander in World War I and World War II...
and General
George MarshallGeneral of the Army George Catlett Marshall was an American military leader, Chief of Staff of the Army, Secretary of State, and the third Secretary of Defense. Once noted as the "organizer of victory" by Winston Churchill for his leadership of the Allied victory in World War II, Marshall served...
, whose excellent personal relations and senior positions (Roosevelt was especially close to Marshall) oiled the wheels of the alliance considerably.
The links that were created during the war—such as the UK military liaison officers posted to Washington—persist. However for Britain to gain any benefit from the relationship it became clear that a constant policy of personal engagement was required. Britain starting off in 1941 as somewhat the senior partner had quickly found itself the junior. The diplomatic policy was thus two pronged, encompassing strong personal support and equally forthright military and political aid. These two have always operated in tandem, that is to say the best personal relationships between British prime ministers and American presidents have always been those based around shared goals. For example,
Harold WilsonJames Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, PC was a British Labour Party politician; one of the most prominent British politicians of the latter half of the 20th century, he served two terms as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, firstly from 1964 to 1970, and again from 1974...
's government would not commit troops to
VietnamThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
. Harold Wilson and Lyndon Johnson did not get on especially well.
Peaks in the special relationship include the bonds between
Harold MacmillanMaurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
(who like Churchill had an American mother) and
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, and between
Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She is the only woman to have held either post....
and
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
. Nadirs have included
Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was a five-star general in the United States Army and the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. During the Second World War, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the...
's opposition to UK operations in
SuezSuez is a seaport town in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has two harbors, Port Ibrahim and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities...
under
Anthony EdenRobert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Foreign Secretary for three periods between 1935 and 1955, including during World War II...
and Wilson's refusal to enter the war in
VietnamVietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east...
.
Macmillan and Kennedy
Macmillan famously quipped that it was Britain’s historical duty to guide the power of the United States as the
ancient GreeksAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
had the
RomansAncient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
. He endeavoured to broaden the special relationship beyond Churchill’s conception of an English-Speaking Union into a more inclusive
Atlantic CommunityThe Atlantic Community is a German-American project to apply Web 2.0 ideas to transatlantic foreign policy strategy. Launched in April 2007 as a project of the Atlantic Initiative, the Atlantic Community aims to facilitate discussion between young thinkers and established members of the foreign...
. His key theme, 'of the
interdependenceInterdependence is a dynamic of being mutually and physically responsible to, and sharing a common set of principles with, others. This concept differs distinctly from "dependence" in that an interdependent relationship implies that all participants are emotionally, economically, ecologically and...
of the nations of the
Free WorldThe free world is a Cold War-era propaganda term used by the United States and its allies to describe non-communist countries collectively.The term was used to imply the greater personal freedoms enjoyed by citizens of non-communist countries that were democratic, such as the United States, Canada,...
and the partnership which must be maintained between
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and the United States', was one that Kennedy subsequently took up.
On the prime minister's retirement in October 1963, the president declared: 'In nearly three years of cooperation, we have worked together on great and small issues, and we have never had a failure of understanding or of mutual trust.' For his part, Macmillan confided to Kennedy's widow in February 1964: 'He seemed to
trust me—and (as you will know) for those of us who have had to play the so-called game of politics—national and international—this is something very rare but very precious.'
However, even in the celebrated 'golden days' of the Kennedy-Macmillan partnership, the special relationship was tested, most severely by the Skybolt crisis of 1962, when Kennedy and his
secretary of defenseThe United States Secretary of Defense is the head of the U.S. Department of Defense , concerned with the armed services and military matters. This position roughly corresponds to Minister of defense in other countries...
,
Robert McNamaraRobert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968. Following that he served as President of the World Bank from 1968 until 1981...
, ignoring the British contribution to the development of the
atomic bombA nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion...
and reneging on a promise made by Eisenhower, tried to divest the United Kingdom of its nuclear deterrent by unilaterally cancelling a joint project without consultation.
Dean AchesonDean Gooderham Acheson was an American statesman and lawyer; as United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Harry S. Truman during 1949–1953, he played a central role in defining American foreign policy during the Cold War...
, a former US Secretary of State, also chose this moment to publicly challenge the special relationship and marginalise the British contribution to the
Western allianceThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
in his West Point speech of 1962:
On learning of Acheson's attack, Macmillan thundered:
The looming collapse of the alliance between the two thermonuclear powers forced Kennedy into an immediate volte-face at the Anglo-American summit in
NassauNassau is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 260,000 , nearly 80 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas...
, where he
agreedThe Nassau Agreement, signed in December 1962, was a treaty negotiated between President John F. Kennedy for the United States and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan for the United Kingdom...
to sell Polaris as a replacement for the cancelled Skybolt. Richard E. Neustadt in his official investigation concluded the crisis in the special relationship had erupted because ‘the president's "Chiefs" failed to make a proper strategic assessment of Great Britain's intentions and its capabilities’.
The Skybolt crisis with Kennedy came on top of Eisenhower’s wrecking of Macmillan’s policy of
détenteDétente is a French term, meaning a relaxing or easing; the term has been used in international politics since the early 1970s. Generally, it may be applied to any international situation where previously hostile nations not involved in an open war de-escalate tensions through diplomacy and...
with the Soviet Union at the May 1960 Paris summit, and the prime minister’s resulting disenchantment with the special relationship contributed to his decision to seek an alternative in British membership of the
European Economic CommunityThe European Economic Community was an international organisation that existed between 1958 and 1993 which was created to bring about economic integration between Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.It was...
(EEC). According to a recent analyst: ‘What the prime minister in effect adopted was a
hedging strategy in which ties with Washington would be maintained while at the same time a new power base in Europe was sought.' Even so, Kennedy assured Macmillan ‘that relations between the United States and the UK would be strengthened not weakened, if the UK moved towards membership.’
Wilson and Johnson
Prime Minister
Harold WilsonJames Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, PC was a British Labour Party politician; one of the most prominent British politicians of the latter half of the 20th century, he served two terms as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, firstly from 1964 to 1970, and again from 1974...
recast the alliance as a 'close relationship', but neither he nor President
Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon Baines Johnson , served as the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969 after his service as the Vice President of the United States from 1961 to 1963...
had any experience of foreign policy, and Wilson's attempt to mediate in
VietnamThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
, where the United Kingdom was co-chairman with the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
of the
Geneva ConferenceThe Geneva Conference was a conference between many countries that agreed to end hostilities and restore peace in French Indochina and Vietnam...
, was unwelcome to the president, who was rumoured to have called the prime minister a 'creep'. 'I won't tell you how to run
MalaysiaMalaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
and you don’t tell us how to run Vietnam,' Johnson snapped in 1965. However relations were sustained by US recognition that Wilson was being criticised at home by his
neutralistA neutral power in a particular war is a sovereign state which declares itself to be neutral towards the belligerents. A non-belligerent state does not need to be neutral. The rights and duties of a neutral power are defined in Sections 5 and 13 of the Hague Convention of 1907...
LabourThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
left for not condemning US involvement in the war.
Despite US Defense Secretary
Robert McNamaraRobert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968. Following that he served as President of the World Bank from 1968 until 1981...
's insistence that the United Kingdom should 'pay the blood price' by sending troops to Vietnam as 'the unwritten terms of the Special Relationship', Wilson refused to commit regular forces, only
special forcesSpecial forces and special operations forces are generic terms for elite highly-trained military teams/units that conduct specialized operations such as reconnaissance, unconventional warfare, direct action and counter-terrorism actions.In the United States, the term special operations forces is...
instructors. His stance was consistent with a burden-sharing arrangement agreed by Macmillan, whereby British forces had been concentrated against the
Communist insurgencyThe Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army , the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party, from 1948 to 1960....
in
MalayaThe Federation of Malaya , is the name given to a federation of 11 states that existed from 31 January 1948 until 16 September 1963. Comprising the nine Malay states and the British settlements of Penang and Malacca, it was eventually superseded by Malaysia.-History:From 1946 to 1948, the 11...
. 30,000 British troops were still defending Malaysia in 1964 in an undeclared war with
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
.
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
and
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
were
CommonwealthThe Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values...
allies that did commit regular forces to Vietnam.
The Johnson administration’s support for
IMFThe International Monetary Fund is an international organization that oversees the global financial system by following the macroeconomic policies of its member countries, in particular those with an impact on exchange rates and the balance of payments...
loans delayed devaluation of
sterlingThe pound sterling , often simply called the pound, is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory...
until 1967. The United Kingdom's subsequent withdrawal from the
Persian GulfThe Persian Gulf, in the Southwest Asian region, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Historically and commonly known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is sometimes controversially referred to as the Arabian Gulf by most Arab states or simply The...
and
East AsiaEast Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. Geographically and geo-politically, it covers about , or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe, though some categorize Tibet, Xinjiang,...
'came as a shock to the United States', where it was strongly opposed, British forces being especially valued for their out-of-area contribution. In retrospect Wilson's moves to scale back Britain's global commitments and correct its balance of payments contrasted favourably with Johnson's overexertions which accelerated the United States' relative economic and military decline.
Heath and Nixon
A Europeanist, Prime Minister
Edward HeathSir Edward Richard George Heath, KG, MBE , often known as Ted Heath, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975...
preferred to speak of a '"natural relationship", based on shared culture and heritage', and stressed that the special relationship was 'not part of his own vocabulary'.
The Heath-Nixon era was dominated by the United Kingdom's 1973 entry into the
European Economic CommunityThe European Economic Community was an international organisation that existed between 1958 and 1993 which was created to bring about economic integration between Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.It was...
(EEC). Although the two leaders' 1971
BermudaBermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, it is situated around 1,770 kilometres northeast of Miami, Florida, and 1,350 kilometres south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada...
communiqué restated that entry served the interests of the
Atlantic AllianceThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
, American observers voiced concern that the British government's membership would impair its role as an honest broker, and that, because of the European goal of political union, the special relationship would only survive if it included the whole Community.
Critics accused President Richard M. Nixon of impeding the EEC's inclusion in the special relationship by his economic policy, which dismantled the postwar
international monetary systemThe Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the world's major industrial states in the mid 20th century...
and sought to force open European markets for US exports. Detractors also slated the personal relationship at the top as 'decidedly less than special'; Prime Minister Edward Heath, it was alleged, 'hardly dared put through a phone call to Richard Nixon for fear of offending his new Common Market partners.'
The special relationship was 'soured' during the
Arab-Israeli WarThe Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to October 26, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of...
of 1973 when Nixon failed to inform Heath that US forces had been put on
DEFCONThe defense readiness condition is a measure of the activation and readiness level of the United States Armed Forces. It describes progressive postures for use between the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the commanders of unified commands. DEFCONs are matched to the situations of military severity...
3 in a worldwide standoff with the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
, and US Secretary of State
Henry KissingerHenry Alfred Kissinger , is a German-born American political scientist, diplomat, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the Nixon Administration....
misled the British ambassador over the nuclear alert. Heath, who learned about the alert only from press reports hours later, confessed: ‘I have found considerable alarm as to what use the Americans would have been able to make of their forces here without in any way consulting us or considering the British interests.’ The incident marked 'a low ebb' in the special relationship.
Callaghan, Ford and Carter
While President
Gerald FordGerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
never visited
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the British government saw the
US bicentennialThe United States Bicentennial was celebrated on Sunday, July 4, 1976, the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.-Coins:...
in 1976 as an occasion to celebrate the special relationship. Political leaders and guests from both sides of
AtlanticThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
gathered in May at Westminster Hall to mark the
Declaration of IndependenceThe United States Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire...
. Prime Minister Jim Callaghan presented a visiting
US CongressionalThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election....
delegation with a gold-embossed reproduction of
Magna CartaMagna Carta, also called Magna Carta Libertatum , is an English legal charter, originally issued in the year 1215. It was written in Latin and is known by its Latin name...
, symbolising the common heritage of the two nations. British historian
Esmond WrightProfessor Esmond Wright was a British Conservative politician, historian and Director of the Institute of United States Studies at the University of London from 1971 to 1983...
, of the
Institute of US StudiesThe Institute for the Study of the Americas was founded in August 2004 through a merger of the Institute of Latin American Studies with the Institute of United States Studies , both of which had been founded in 1965 at 31 Tavistock Square...
, noted 'a vast amount of popular identification with the American story'. A year of cultural exchanges and exhibitions culminated in July in a state visit to the United States by the
QueenElizabeth II is the queen regnant of sixteen independent states known informally as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,...
.
Ties between Callaghan and President
Jimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
were cordial but not emotional. When Carter came to
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
on his first foreign trip in May 1977 he described the relationship as 'very special' but, with both left of centre-governments being preoccupied with economic malaise, diplomatic contacts remained low key. US officials characterised relations in 1978 as 'extremely good', with the main disagreement being over trans-Atlantic air routes.
Reagan and Thatcher
After a period of disengagement and drift in the 1970s, the personal friendship between President
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
and Prime Minister
Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She is the only woman to have held either post....
, often described as 'ideological soul-mates', reinvigorated what she affirmed as the ‘extraordinary alliance’. They shared a commitment to the philosophy of the
free marketA free market describes a market without economic intervention and regulation by government except to regulate against force or fraud. The terminology is used by economists and in popular culture. A free market requires protection of property rights, but no regulation, no subsidization, no single...
, low taxes,
limited governmentLimited government is a government where any more than minimal governmental intervention in personal liberties and the economy is not usually allowed by law, usually in a written Constitution. It is closely related to libertarianism, recntliberalism, and some tendencies of liberalism and...
, and a strong defence; they rejected
détenteDétente is a French term, meaning a relaxing or easing; the term has been used in international politics since the early 1970s. Generally, it may be applied to any international situation where previously hostile nations not involved in an open war de-escalate tensions through diplomacy and...
and were determined to win the battle of ideas with the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
.
Thatcher summed up her understanding of the special relationship at her first meeting with Reagan as president in 1981: ‘Your problems will be our problems and when you look for friends we shall be there.’ Celebrating the 200th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 1985, she enthused: ‘There is a union of mind and purpose between our peoples which is remarkable and which makes our relationship a truly remarkable one. It is special. It just is, and that’s that.’ The president acknowledged: ‘The United States and the United Kingdom are bound together by inseparable ties of ancient history and present friendship ... There's been something very special about the friendships between the leaders of our two countries. And may I say to my friend the Prime Minister, I'd like to add two more names to this list of affection—Thatcher and Reagan.’
In 1982 Thatcher and Reagan reached an agreement to replace the British Polaris fleet with a force equipped with US-supplied
Trident missilesThe UK Trident programme is the United Kingdom's Trident missile-based nuclear weapons programme. Under the programme, the Royal Navy operates 58 nuclear-armed Trident II D-5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles and around 200 nuclear warheads on 4 Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines from...
, and Reagan became only the second foreign leader to address both
Houses of ParliamentThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
(the first was
de GaulleCharles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II...
in 1960). The confidence between the two principals was momentarily strained by Reagan's belated support in the
Falklands WarThe Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict/Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
, but this was more than countered by the Anglophile US Defense Secretary,
Caspar WeinbergerCaspar Willard "Cap" Weinberger , was an American politician, vice president and general counsel of Bechtel Corporation, and Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from January 21, 1981, until November 23, 1987, making him the third longest-serving defense secretary to date, after...
, who provided communications intercepts and approved shipments of the latest weapons to the massing British task force. Thatcher later stood alone among Western allies when she returned the favour by letting US F-111s take off from
RAFThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
bases for the bombing of Libya, justifying it as an overdue move to help Reagan 'turn the tide against
terrorismTerrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.At present, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism...
'.
Feathers were ruffled over the US
invasionThe Invasion of Grenada, codenamed Operation Urgent Fury, was an invasion ordered by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on the nation of Grenada, an island in the Caribbean Sea, north of Venezuela, and over southeast of the United States...
of the
CommonwealthThe Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values...
island of
GrenadaGrenada is an island country and sovereign state consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. Grenada is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela, and southwest of Saint Vincent and the...
, and the potential risk to Britain's
deterrentThe UK Trident programme is the United Kingdom's Trident missile-based nuclear weapons programme. Under the programme, the Royal Navy operates 58 nuclear-armed Trident II D-5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles and around 200 nuclear warheads on 4 Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines from...
and security posed by the
Strategic Defense InitiativeThe Strategic Defense Initiative was a proposal by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use ground and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic...
and Reagan's proposal at the
Reykjavik SummitThe Reykjavik Summit was a summit meeting between U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Secretary-General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, held in the famous house of Höfði in Reykjavík, the capital city of Iceland, on 11 October-12, 1986...
to eliminate of all
ballistic nuclear weaponsA ballistic missile is a missile that follows a sub-orbital ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. The missile is only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight and its course is subsequently governed by the...
despite large conventional disparities. Even so, an observer of the period concludes: 'Britain did indeed figure more prominently in American strategy than any other European power'. A leading
historianPeter John Hennessy is an English historian of government. Since 1992, he has been Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London.-Early life:...
singles out the personal dynamic of 'Ron' and 'Margaret' in this success:
Clinton and Major
The special relationship waned for a time with the passing of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
, despite
intensive co-operationOperation Granby was the name given to the British military operations during the Gulf War in 1991. It covered both deployments in defence of Saudi Arabia and the liberation of Kuwait...
in the
Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , known also as the Gulf War, the First Gulf War,or often as the Second Gulf War and by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as The Mother of all Battles, or commonly as Desert Storm, for the military response...
. Thus, while it remained the case that: 'On almost all issues, Britain and the US are on the same side of the table. You cannot say that for other important allies such as
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
or
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
', it was also acknowledged: ‘The disappearance of a powerful common threat, the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
, has allowed narrower disputes to emerge and given them greater weight.’
RepublicanThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
administrations had enjoyed strong links with the
ConservativeThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
governments, and the new
DemocraticThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
President
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
said he intended to maintain the special relationship, avowing: 'I'm a great Anglophile', but he and Prime Minister
John MajorSir John Major, KG, CH, ACIB , is a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and former Leader of the Conservative Party. He held these posts from 1990 to 1997....
were 'an odd couple', who 'got off on the wrong foot'. Their personal relationship was described as ‘especially awful’, with the two leaders once refusing to speak to one another while dining side-by-side.
Both the Conservatives and
LabourThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
had sent advisers to the United States to aid the rival candidates in the
1992 presidential electionThe United States presidential election of 1992 had three major candidates: Incumbent Republican President George H. W. Bush; Democrat Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, and independent Texas businessman Ross Perot....
, and it emerged that the Conservative government had allowed
Home OfficeThe Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security and order. As such it is responsible for the police, United Kingdom Borders Agency and MI5. It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs, counter-terrorism...
press officers to search files for evidence that Clinton had applied for British citizenship
to avoidA draft dodger is a term, usually pejorative, that refers to a person who avoids the conscription policies of the nation in which he or she is a citizen or resident by leaving the country, going into hiding, or other attempts at fraudulent means...
the Vietnam draft while a
Rhodes scholarThe Rhodes Scholarship named after Cecil Rhodes is an international award for study at the University of Oxford and was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships...
at Oxford in 1969; no evidence was found that he had.
Major stood accused of letting the special relationship become a personal relationship with the losing candidate, President
George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States . He was also Ronald Reagan's Vice President , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence....
, and of having 'bet on the wrong horse in the presidential race'.
The EconomistThe Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in an office in the City of Westminster, London. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843. While The Economist calls itself a...
predicted: 'the special relationship, declared dead scores of times since
SuezThe Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, was a military attack on Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel beginning on 29 October 1956....
, will soon face another burial'. The Clinton administration did little to rebut a report in the
New York Times in January 1993 that Major topped a 'Clinton enemies list'. The president afterwards explained: ‘I was determined there would be no damage but I wanted the
ToriesThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
to worry about it for a while.’ At Clinton's first meeting with Major in February 1993 Clinton joked that he was 'grateful that I got through this whole campaign with most of my time in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
still classified.'
The nuclear alliance—'the heart of the special relationship'—was weakened when Clinton extended a moratorium on
testsNuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
in the
Nevada desertThe Nevada Test Site is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of the city of Las Vegas. Formerly known as the Nevada Proving Ground, the site, established on January 11, 1951, for the testing of nuclear devices, is composed of...
in 1993, and pressed Major to agree to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The freeze was described by a British
defence ministerRobert Michael James Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury, PC , is a British Conservative politician. During the 1990s, he was Leader of the House of Lords under his courtesy title of Viscount Cranborne...
as 'unfortunate and misguided', as it inhibited validation of the ‘safety, reliability and effectiveness’ of fail-safe mechanisms on upgraded warheads for the
British Trident IIThe UK Trident programme is the United Kingdom's Trident missile-based nuclear weapons programme. Under the programme, the Royal Navy operates 58 nuclear-armed Trident II D-5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles and around 200 nuclear warheads on 4 Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines from...
D5 missileThe UGM-133 Trident II, or Trident D5 is a Submarine-launched ballistic missile, built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, California, and deployed with the Royal Navy and US Navy...
s, and potentially the development of a new deterrent for the twenty-first century, leading Major to consider a return to
PacificThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
testing, and the
Ministry of DefenceThe Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
to turn to computer simulation. One analyst accused the United Kingdom of using safety and reliability as cover for testing a replacement warhead for the
WE.177WE.177 was the last air-delivered tactical nuclear weapon of the British Armed Forces. There were three versions; WE.177A was a boosted fission weapon, while WE.177B and WE.177C were thermonuclear weapons...
free-fall bomb. The moratorium weakened the case for British reliance on Trident, resulting in the
entente nucléaire with France in 1995 under a Joint Nuclear Commission.
A genuine crisis in transatlantic relations blew up over
BosniaThe Bosnian War, also known as the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was an international armed conflict that took place between March 1992 and November 1995. The war involved several sides...
. London and Paris resisted relaxation of the
UNThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
arms embargo, and discouraged US
escalationLift and strike was the name of an American policy, which sought to improve the chances of a political settlement in the Bosnian War. The idea of the proposal was to lift a United Nations arms embargo in order to allow the poorly armed Bosniaks to arm with imported weapons, thus balancing the...
, arguing that arming the
MuslimsThe Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller autochthonous population also present in the Sandžak, Croatia, and the Republic of Macedonia. Bosniaks are typically characterized by their tie to the Bosnian historical region,...
or bombing the
SerbsSerbs are one of the three constitutive nations of Bosnia-Herzegovina, predominantly concentrated in the Republic of Srpska entity, although many also live in the other entity called the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
could worsen the bloodshed and endanger their
peacekeepersThe United Nations Protection Force ', was the first UN peacekeeping force in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav wars. It existed between the beginning of UN involvement in February 1992, and its restructuring into other forces in March 1995...
on the ground. US Secretary of State
Warren ChristopherWarren Minor Christopher is an American diplomat, lawyer, and public servant. During Bill Clinton's first term as President, Christopher served as the 63rd Secretary of State...
's campaign to lift the embargo was rebuffed by Major and President
MitterrandFrançois Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand served as the President of France from 1981 to 1995, elected as representative of the Socialist Party . First elected during the May 1981 presidential election, he became the first socialist President of the Fifth Republic and the first left-wing head of...
in May 1993. After the so-called '
CopenhagenCopenhagen ; ) is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban area with a population of 1,167,569 and a metropolitan area with a population of 1,875,179...
ambush' in June 1993, where Clinton 'ganged up' with Chancellor
KohlHelmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
to rally the
European CommunityThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
against the peacekeeping states, Major was said to be contemplating the death of the special relationship. The following month the United States voted at the UN with non-aligned countries against Britain and France over lifting the embargo.
By October 1993 Christopher was bristling that Washington policy makers had been too '
EurocentricEurocentrism is a term coined during the period of decolonization in the later 20th century to refer to the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective, with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture...
', and declared that
Western EuropeWestern Europe is the collection of countries in the westernmost region of Europe, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a cultural entity—the region lying west of Central Europe...
was 'no longer the dominant area of the world'. The
US ambassadorThe Honorable Raymond George Hardenbergh Seitz is a former career diplomat and U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 8, 1940. He graduated from Yale University in 1963 with a BA in history, following which he spent 2 years teaching in Dallas, Texas. He...
to London demurred, insisting it was far too early to put a 'tombstone' over the special relationship. A senior
US State DepartmentThe United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, similar to foreign ministries, foreign offices, ministries of external relations, etc. in other countries...
official described Bosnia in the spring of 1995 as the worst crisis with the British and French since Suez. By the summer US officials were doubting whether
NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
had a future.
The nadir had now been reached, and, along with
NATO enlargementEnlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is the process of including new member states in NATO. NATO is a military alliance of currently democratic states in Europe and North America whose organization constitutes a system of collective defense...
and the Croatian offensive in 1995 that opened the way for NATO bombing, the strengthening Clinton-Major relationship was later credited as one of three developments that saved the Western alliance. The president acknowledged: 'John Major carried a lot of water for me and for the alliance over Bosnia. I know he was under a lot of political pressure at home, but he never wavered. He was a truly decent guy who never let me down. We worked really well together, and I got to like him a lot.'
A rift opened in a further area. In February 1994 Major refused to answer Clinton's telephone calls for days over his decision to grant
Sinn FéinSinn Féin is a political party in Ireland. The current party, led by Gerry Adams, was formed following a split in January 1970 and traces its origins back to the original Sinn Féin party formed in 1905. It is a major party of Irish republicanism and its political ideology is left wing...
leader
Gerry AdamsGerard "Gerry" Adams, MLA, MP is an Irish Republican politician and abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West...
a
visaA visa is an indication that a person is authorized to enter the country which "issued" the visa, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
to visit the United States to agitate. Adams was listed as a terrorist by
LondonThe Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security and order. As such it is responsible for the police, United Kingdom Borders Agency and MI5. It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs, counter-terrorism...
. The US State Department, the
CIAThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government.It is an independent agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior United States policymakers....
, the
US Justice DepartmentThe United States Department of Justice is a Cabinet department in the United States government designed to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans...
and the
FBIThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
all opposed the move on the grounds that it made the United States look 'soft on terrorism' and 'could do irreparable damage to the special relationship'. Under pressure from
CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election....
, the president hoped the visit would encourage the
IRAThe Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation which sought to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
to renounce violence. While Adams offered nothing new, and violence escalated within weeks, the president later claimed vindication after the IRA ceasefire of August 1994. To the disappointment of the prime minister, Clinton lifted the ban on official contacts and received Adams at the
White HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian style and has been the residence of every...
on St. Patrick's Day 1995, despite the fact the paramilitaries had not agreed to disarm. The rows over
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
and the Adams affair reportedly 'provoked incandescent Clintonian rages'.
In November 1995 Clinton became only the second US president ever to address both
Houses of ParliamentThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
, but by the end of Major's premiership disenchantment with the special relationship had deepened to the point where the incoming
British ambassadorSir Christopher Meyer, KCMG is a former British Ambassador to the United States , and the former chair of the Press Complaints Commission.-Background and earlier career:...
banned the 'hackneyed phrase' from the embassy.
Blair, Clinton and Bush
The election of
British prime ministerThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of Her Majesty's Government...
Tony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
in 1997 brought an opportunity to revive what Clinton called the two nations' 'unique partnership'. At his first meeting with his new partner, the president said: 'Over the last fifty years our unbreakable alliance has helped to bring unparalleled peace and prosperity and security. It’s an alliance based on shared values and common aspirations.' The personal relationship was seen as especially close because the leaders were 'kindred spirits' in their domestic agendas. New Labour's
Third WayThe Third Way is a term that has been used to describe a political position which attempts to transcend left-wing and right-wing politics by advocating a mix of some left-wing and right-wing policies. Third Way approaches are commonly viewed as representing a centrist compromise between capitalism...
, a moderate
social-democraticSocial democracy is a political ideology of the political left and centre-left on the classic political spectrum. Social democracy emerged in the late 19th century from the socialist movement and continues to exert influence worldwide....
position, was partly influenced by US
New DemocraticIn the politics of the United States, the New Democrats are an ideologically centrist faction within the Democratic Party that emerged after the victory of Republican George H. W. Bush in the 1988 presidential election. They are identified with more center-right social/cultural positions and...
thinking.
Co-operation in defence and communications still had the potential to embarrass Blair, however, as he strove to balance it with his own leadership role in the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
(EU). Enforcement of
Iraqi no-fly zonesThe Iraqi no-fly zones were a set of two separate no-fly zones , and were proclaimed by the United States, United Kingdom and France after the Gulf War of 1991 to protect humanitarian operations in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the south. Iraqi aircraft were forbidden from flying inside the...
and US bombing raids on
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
dismayed EU partners. As the leading international proponent of
humanitarian interventionHumanitarian intervention refers to armed interference in one state by another state with the objective of ending or reducing the suffering of the population within the first state....
, the 'hawkish' Blair 'bullied' Clinton to back diplomacy with force in
KosovoKosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo , a self-declared independent state which has de facto control over the territory; the exceptions are some Serb enclaves...
in 1999, pushing for deployment of ground troops to persuade the president 'to do whatever was necessary' to win.
The personal diplomacy of Blair and Clinton's successor,
US presidentThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
, further served to highlight the special relationship. Despite their political differences on non-strategic matters, their shared beliefs and responses to the international situation formed a commonality of purpose following the September 11 Attacks in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Washington DC. Blair, like Bush, was convinced of the importance of moving against the perceived threat to world peace and international order, famously pledging to stand 'shoulder to shoulder' with Bush:
Blair flew to Washington immediately after 9/11 to affirm British solidarity with the United States. In a speech to the
United States CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election....
, nine days after the attacks, Bush declared 'America has no truer friend than Great Britain.' Blair, one of few world leaders to attend a presidential speech to Congress as a special guest of the First Lady, received two standing ovations from members of Congress. Following that speech Blair embarked on two months of diplomacy rallying international support for military action. The
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
calculated that, in total, the prime minister held 54 meetings with world leaders and travelled more than 40,000 miles (60,000 km).
Blair's leadership role in the
Iraq WarThe Iraq War, also known as the Occupation of Iraq or Operation Iraqi Freedom, is an ongoing military campaign which began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force led by troops from the United States and the United Kingdom.Prior to the war, the governments of the United...
helped him to sustain a strong relationship with Bush through the end of his time as prime minister, but it was unpopular within his own party and lowered his public approval ratings. It also alienated some of his European partners, including the leaders of
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. Blair defended his closeness to Bush by claiming it had brought progress in the Middle East peace process, aid for
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
and
climate-changeClimate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It can be a change in the average weather or a change in the distribution of weather events around an average...
diplomacy. However it was not with Bush but with
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
governor
Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor, businessman, and politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of the state of California....
that Blair ultimately succeeded in setting up a
carbon-trading marketEmissions trading is an administrative approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants. It is sometimes called cap-and-trade or cap-and-tax....
, 'creating a model other states will follow'.
The 2006 Lebanon War also exposed some minor differences in attitudes over the Middle East. The strong support offered by Blair and the Bush administration to Israel was not wholeheartedly shared by the British cabinet or the British public. On 27 July, Foreign Secretary
Margaret BeckettMargaret Mary Beckett is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Derby South since 1983, rising to become the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under John Smith, from 18 July 1992 to 12 May 1994, and subsequently the Acting Leader of the Party following John Smith's...
criticised the United States for 'ignoring procedure' when using Prestwick Airport as a stop off point for delivering
laser-guided bombA laser-guided bomb is a precision-guided munition that uses semi-active laser homing to strike a designated target with greater accuracy than a free-fall bomb. LGBs are one of the most common and widespread PGMs, used by a large number of the world's air forces.-Overview:Laser-guided munitions...
s to Israel. On 17 August,
The IndependentThe Independent is a British newspaper published by Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily newspapers. The daily edition was named National...
reported that Deputy Prime Minister
John PrescottJohn Leslie Prescott is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Hull East since 1970; from 1997 to 2007, he was the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, also serving as First Secretary of State from 2001...
had disparaged as '
crapCrap may refer to:*Crap, a slang word for feces*Craps, a casino dice game*Crap Grisch, a mountain in the Lepontine Alps, situated near Vals in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland*Crap la Pala, a mountain in the Lenzerheide region in the Swiss Alps...
' Bush's efforts on the
Middle East RoadmapThe "road map" for peace is a plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict proposed by a "quartet" of international entities: the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations. The principles of the plan, originally drafted by U.S. Foreign Service Officer Donald Bloome, were...
, which Prescott felt had been a condition of his support for the war in Iraq. Prescott said this was an inaccurate report of a private conversation.
In November 2006 US State Department analyst
Kendall MyersWalter Kendall Myers is a retired U.S. State Department Officer who, with his wife Gwendolyn Myers, was arrested and indicted on June 4, 2009 on charges of nearly 30 years of spying for Cuba.-Background:...
dismissed the special relationship as a ‘myth’ with 'no sense of reciprocity'. Myers was disowned by the State Department. Former Foreign Office minister
Denis MacShaneDenis MacShane is a politician in the United Kingdom. He is the Labour Member of Parliament for Rotherham, and was the Minister of State for Europe at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office until the ministerial reshuffle that followed the 2005 general election...
said: 'Every little rat who feasted during the Bush years is now leaving the ship'.
Public opinion
It has been noted that secret defence and intelligence links 'that had minimal impact on ordinary people played a disproportionate role in the transatlantic friendship', and perspectives on the special relationship differ.
Poll findings
A 1942 Gallup poll conducted after
Pearl HarborThe attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Japanese navy against the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941 , later resulting in the United...
, before the arrival of US troops and
ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
's heavy promotion of the special relationship, showed wartime ally
RussiaThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
was still more popular than the United States among 62% of Britons. However only 6% had ever visited the United States and only 35% knew any Americans personally.
In 1969 the United States was tied with the
CommonwealthThe Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values...
as the most important overseas connection for the British public, while
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
came in a distant third. By 1984, after a decade in the
Common MarketThe European Economic Community was an international organisation that existed between 1958 and 1993 which was created to bring about economic integration between Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.It was...
, Britons chose Europe as being most important to them.
British opinion polls from the Cold War revealed ambivalent feelings towards the United States.
Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She is the only woman to have held either post....
's 1979 agreement to base US
cruise missileA cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and uses a lifting wing and a propulsion system, usually a jet engine, to allow sustained flight; it is essentially a flying bomb. Cruise missiles are generally designed to carry a large conventional or nuclear warhead many...
s in Britain was approved of by only 36% of Britons, and the number with little or no trust in America's ability to deal wisely with world affairs had soared from 38% in 1977 to 74% in 1984, by which time 49% wanted US nuclear bases in Britain removed, and 50% would have sent US-controlled cruise missiles back to the United States. At the same time, 59% of Britons supported their own country’s
nuclear deterrentThe United Kingdom was the third state to test an independently developed nuclear weapon, in October 1952. It is one of the five "Nuclear Weapons States" under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which the UK ratified in 1968...
, with 60% believing Britain should rely on both nuclear and conventional weapons, and 66% opposing unilateral
nuclear disarmamentNuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated....
. 53% of Britons opposed dismantling the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
's Polaris
submarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has only limited underwater capability...
s. 70% of Britons still considered Americans to be very or fairly trustworthy, and in case of war the United States was the ally trusted overwhelmingly to come to Britain's aid, and to risk its own security for the sake of Britain. America and Britain were also the two countries most alike in basic values such as willingness to fight for their country and the importance of freedom.
In 1986, 71% of Britons, questioned in a Mori poll the day after
ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
’s bombing of Libya, disagreed with Thatcher's decision to allow the use of
RAFThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
bases, while two thirds in a Gallup survey opposed the bombing itself, the reverse of American opinion.
The United Kingdom's all-time low poll rating in the United States came in 1994, during the split over
BosniaThe Bosnian War, also known as the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was an international armed conflict that took place between March 1992 and November 1995. The war involved several sides...
, when only 56% of Americans interviewed considered Britons to be close allies.
In a 1997 Harris poll published after
BlairAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
's election, 63% of Americans viewed Britain as a close ally, up by one percent from 1996, 'confirming that the long-running "special relationship" with America's transatlantic cousins is still alive and well'. Britain came second behind its colonial offshoot
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, on 73%, while another offshoot,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, came third, on 48%. Popular awareness of the historical link was fading in the mother country, however. In a 1997 Gallup poll, while 60% of the British public said they regretted the
endDecolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the establishment of governance or authority through the creation of settlements by another country or jurisdiction. The term generally refers to the achievement of independence by the various Western colonies and protectorates in Asia and...
of
EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
and 70% expressed pride in the imperial past, 53% wrongly supposed that America had never been a
British possessionBritish colonization of the Americas began in the late 16th century and reached its peak when colonies had been established throughout the Americas and a protectorate had been established over the Kingdom of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean...
.
In 1998, 61% of Britons polled by ICM said they believed they had more in common with Americans than they did with the rest of Europe. 64% disagreed with the sentence, ‘Britain does what the US government tells us to do.’ A majority also backed Blair's support of
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
's strategy on
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
, 42% saying action should be taken to topple
Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, with 24% favouring diplomatic action, and a further 24%, military action. A majority of Britons aged 24 and over said they did not like Blair supporting Clinton over the
Lewinsky scandalThe Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal emerging from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of...
.
A 2006 poll of the US public showed that the United Kingdom, as an 'ally in the war on terror' was viewed more positively than any other country. 76% of Americans polled viewed the British as an 'ally in the War on Terror' according to Rasmussen Reports. According to Harris Interactive, 74% of Americans viewed Great Britain as a 'close ally in the war in Iraq', well ahead of next-ranked Canada at 48%.
A June 2006 poll by
PopulusPopulus is a market research company in the United Kingdom. Populus co-founded the British Polling Council in 2004 and regularly publishes opinion polls on voting intention and as well as other political issues....
for
The TimesThe Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
showed that the number of Britons agreeing that 'it is important for Britain’s long-term security that we have a close and special relationship with America' had fallen to 58% (from 71% in April), and that 65% believed that 'Britain's future lies more with Europe than America.' 44% agreed that 'America is a force for good in the world.' A later poll during the
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflictThe 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War , was a 34-day military conflict in Lebanon and northern Israel. The principal parties were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israeli military...
found that 63% of Britons felt that the United Kingdom was tied too closely to the United States. A 2008 poll by
The EconomistThe Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in an office in the City of Westminster, London. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843. While The Economist calls itself a...
showed that Britons' views differed considerably from Americans' views when asked about the topics of religion, values, and national interest.
The Economist remarked:
For many Britons, steeped in the lore of how English-speaking democracies rallied around Britain in the second world war, [the special relationship] is something to cherish. For Winston Churchill ... it was a bond forged in battle. On the eve of the war in Iraq, as Britain prepared to fight alongside America, Tony Blair spoke of the 'blood price' that Britain should be prepared to pay in order to sustain the relationship.
In America, it is not nearly so emotionally charged. Indeed, American politicians are promiscuous with the term, trumpeting their 'special relationships' with Israel, Germany and South Korea, among others. 'Mention the special relationship to Americans and they say yes, it's a really special relationship,' notes sardonically Sir Christopher Meyer, a former British ambassador to Washington.
1967 letter
In 1967 a group of prominent Americans sought to reaffirm the importance of close ties in a letter published in
The TimesThe Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
of
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, saying that the special relationship should remain a fundamental
bilateral policyBilateralism comprises the political and cultural relations between two states.Most international diplomacy is done bilaterally. Examples of this include treaties between two countries, exchanges of ambassadors, and state visits...
even if the United Kingdom entered the
European Economic CommunityThe European Economic Community was an international organisation that existed between 1958 and 1993 which was created to bring about economic integration between Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.It was...
. They suggested that the two governments 'begin to consider contingent means, including mutually beneficial trade and fiscal reforms, for saving and strengthening the historic relationship between our nations, whatever the outcome of the E.E.C. negotiations'. Signers included 10
senatorsThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate and the House are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution . Each U.S state is represented by two senators,...
, 29 members of the
House of RepresentativeThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
s and a number of
university presidentUniversity president is the title of the highest ranking officer within the academic administration of a university, within university systems that prefer that appellation over other variations such as chancellor or rector...
s.
The Times proposed a 'wide
Atlantic-based free trade areaThe Transatlantic Free Trade Area is a proposed free trade area between the United States and the European Union in reaction to the growing economic power of the People's Republic of China. It was considered in the 1990s and again in 2007 but no firm plan has been made...
' as one possibility of a broader economic grouping.
Friendly fire
More British servicemen were killed in the 1991
Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , known also as the Gulf War, the First Gulf War,or often as the Second Gulf War and by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as The Mother of all Battles, or commonly as Desert Storm, for the military response...
by US fire than by
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
i soldiers. A public controversy arose after US military authorities refused to allow USAF pilots to give evidence at a 1992 British
inquestInquests in England and Wales are held into sudden and unexplained deaths and also into the circumstances of discovery of a certain class of valuable artefacts known as "treasure trove". Inquests are the responsibility of the coroner....
into the deaths of nine British soldiers killed in a US air strike, saying they had already supplied all the relevant information. The inquest jury returned a verdict of
unlawful killingIn English law unlawful killing is a verdict that can be returned by an inquest in England and Wales. The verdict means that a death was caused by another person, without lawful excuse and in breach of the criminal law, in other words homicide. This includes murder, manslaughter, infanticide and...
. Families of those killed accused the United States of 'double standards' after three US military officers were reprimanded for negligence after a separate incident involving the similar death of a US soldier. Tammy Groves, solicitor for the families, said: 'We have been denied any inquiry in the US; there have been no reprimands; and the pilots have not been named. The contrast could not be greater.' Anne Leech, whose son was one of the British soldiers killed, said: 'They are supposed to be a friendly country, but it shows it only goes as far as they want it to ... Unless people are made accountable for what they do in these situations it will continue to happen.'
President
George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States . He was also Ronald Reagan's Vice President , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence....
responded: 'My heart goes out to their families. But I see no reason in going beyond what we've already done to fully account for this terrible tragedy of war.' Peter Atkinson, whose son was also killed, said: 'We met George Bush. He was trying to slide out of meeting us so I ran after him, collared him and told him what I thought. He said to me "You want the facts? ... Right, you'll get them." Months later they sent us a report. It was rubbish. All the relevant details had been censored out.'
Further
friendly fireFriendly fire is an expression meaning fire from one's own side or allied forces, as opposed to fire coming from enemy forces, and was a tactic originally adopted by the United States military....
incidents in the 2003
Iraq WarThe Iraq War, also known as the Occupation of Iraq or Operation Iraqi Freedom, is an ongoing military campaign which began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force led by troops from the United States and the United Kingdom.Prior to the war, the governments of the United...
brought assurances from officers and politicians that they would not hurt the close alliance: 'A situation like this does not mean anything of harm to the
coalitionThe term coalition of the willing is a post-1990 political phrase used to describe military or military/humanitarian interventions for which the United Nations Security Council cannot agree to mount a full UN peacekeeping operation...
, but in many ways it brings us closer together,' said
RAFThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
Group CaptainGroup Captain is a senior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks above Wing Commander and immediately below Air Commodore...
Jon Fynes. However the US government again refused to co-operate with the coroner’s investigations. This culminated in the United States attempting to prevent the release of cockpit videos—later leaked to
The SunThe Sun may refer to -* The Sun a tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and Ireland* Sun, the star at the center of the Solar System...
—showing events leading to the death of Lance-Corporal
Matty HullLance-Corporal of Horse Matthew Richard "Matty" Hull was a British soldier from D Squadron, The Blues and Royals of the Household Cavalry....
of the
Household CavalryThe term Household Cavalry is used across the Commonwealth to describe the cavalry of the Household Divisions, a country’s most elite or historically senior military groupings or those military groupings that provide functions associated directly with the Head of state.Canada's Governor General's...
, and threatening newspapers that published them with prosecution. The
coronerAndrew Walker is a British barrister and coroner for Hornsey, London. In June 2006 he was appointed on temporary contract as assistant deputy coroner in Oxfordshire, one of three temporary appointees to assist in reducing a backlog of inquests into the deaths of British military personnel...
slammed US 'intransigence', and the British press accused the
PentagonThe Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself....
of operating 'in a no-fault zone', with the
Daily Telegraph commenting: 'This will reaffirm the view of many in the British military that while the US has the best kit, it does not necessarily have the best training ... Uninhibited by the risk of any sanction, is it any wonder that they go about their lethal business with such apparent insouciance?'
The SpectatorThe Spectator is a weekly Britishmagazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by the Barclay brothers, who also own The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
described the British forbearance towards American evasiveness as "a bleak parable of the flaws at the heart of the U.S.-U.K. 'special relationship'."
Iraq
Following the
2003 invasion of IraqThe 2003 invasion of Iraq, was led by the United States, backed by British forces and smaller contingents from Australia, Denmark, Poland and Spain. Four countries participated with troops during the initial invasion phase, which lasted from March 20 to May 1...
, senior British figures criticized the refusal of the US Government to heed British advice regarding post-war plans for
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
, specifically the
Coalition Provisional AuthorityThe Coalition Provisional Authority was established as a transitional government following the invasion of Iraq by the United States, United Kingdom and the other members of the Multinational force in Iraq which was formed to oust the government of Saddam Hussein in 2003...
's de-Ba'athification policy and the critical importance of preventing the
power vacuumA power vacuum is an expression for a political situation that can occur when a government has no identifiable central authority. The metaphor implies that, like a physical vacuum, other forces will tend to "rush in" to fill the vacuum as soon as it is created, perhaps in the form of an armed...
in which the
insurgencyAn insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognised as belligerents.[Oxford English Dictionary second edition 1989 "insurgent B. n...]
subsequently developed. British defence secretary
Geoff HoonGeoffrey "Geoff" William Hoon is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Ashfield since 1992...
later stated that the United Kingdom 'lost the argument' with the Bush administration over rebuilding Iraq. Speaking on the same topic, Prince Andrew said there were "occasions when people in the UK would wish that those in responsible positions in the US might listen and learn from our experiences", that there was 'healthy skepticism' in the United Kingdom toward what was said in Washington DC, and a feeling of 'why didn't anyone listen to what was said and the advice that was given'.
CNNCable News Network, almost always referred to by its initialism CNN, is an U.S. cable news network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first network to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television network in the United States...
acknowledged that the Prince's views were widely shared in the U.K.
Extraordinary rendition
Assurances made by the United States to the United Kingdom that 'extraordinary rendition' flights had never landed on British territory were later shown to be false when official US records proved that such flights had landed at
Diego GarciaDiego García is an island considered the largest atoll, in terms of land area, of the Chagos Archipelago, and is part of the British Indian Ocean Territories. The island is located in the Indian Ocean, about 1,600 km south of the southern coast of India...
repeatedly. The revelation was an embarrassment for British foreign secretary
David MilibandDavid Wright Miliband is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for South Shields since 2001, and is the current Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs...
, who was obliged to apologise to
ParliamentA parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French parlement, the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at...
, describing the incidents as 'a most serious matter'.
Legal and moral doubts also arose over the US government's extraordinary rendition process, which ignored extradition treaties and officially sanctioned the kidnap and extrajudicial transfer of people (some of them British citizens) from one country to another, sometimes to one of their covert CIA-run prisons, known as black sites, other times to Guantanamo Bay detention camp. The United Kingdom's Intelligence and Security Committee stated that America's failure to heed British concerns had 'serious implications' for future intelligence relations.
Criminal law
In 2003 the United States pressed the United Kingdom to agree to an
extradition treatyThe Extradition Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It came into force on 1 January 2004 and all import and export extradition requests submitted or received from this date are covered by the Act...
which, proponents claimed, allowed for equal extradition requirements between the two countries. Critics argued that the United Kingdom was obligated to make a strong
prima faciePrima facie is a Latin expression meaning on its first appearance, or by first instance; at first sight. The literal translation would be "from first face", prima first, facie face, both in the ablative case. It is used in modern legal English to signify that on first examination, a matter appears...
case to US courts before extradition would be granted, and that, by contrast, extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States was a matter of administrative decision alone, without prima facie evidence. This had been implemented as an anti-terrorist measure in the wake of the
September 11, 2001 attacksThe September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by Al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners...
. Very soon, however, it was being used by the United States to extradite and prosecute a number of high-profile
LondonThe City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
businessmen (e.g. the Natwest Three and Ian Norris) on fraud charges. Contrasts have been drawn with the United States' harboring of
Provisional IRAThe Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation which sought to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
terrorists in the 1970s through to the 1990s and repeated refusals to extradite them to the UK.
On 30 September 2006 the US Senate unanimously ratified the 2003 treaty. Ratification had been slowed by complaints from some Irish-American groups that the treaty would create new legal jeopardy for US citizens who opposed British policy in
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
The SpectatorThe Spectator is a weekly Britishmagazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by the Barclay brothers, who also own The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
condemned the three-year delay as 'an appalling breach in a long-treasured relationship’.
The United States also refused to accede to another priority of the Blair government, the treaty setting up the
International Criminal CourtThe International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .The court came into being on 1 July 2002 — the...
.
Trade policy
Trade disputes and attendant job fears have sometimes strained the special relationship. The United States has been accused of pursuing an aggressive trade policy, using or ignoring
WTOThe World Trade Organization is an international organization designed by its founders to supervise and liberalize international capital trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, replacing the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade , which...
rules; the aspects of this causing most difficulty to the United Kingdom have been a successful challenge to the protection of small family banana farmers in the West Indies from large US corporations such as the American Financial Corporation, and high tariffs on British
steelSteel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
products. In 2002 Blair denounced Bush's imposition of tariffs on steel as 'unacceptable, unjustified and wrong', but although Britain's biggest steelmaker
CorusCorus is a subsidiary of Tata Steel, part of India's Tata Group. It is the world's fifth largest steel producer, with headquarters in London, England....
called for protection from
dumpingIn economics, "dumping" can refer to any kind of predatory pricing. However, the word is now generally used only in the context of international trade law, where dumping is defined as the act of a manufacturer in one country exporting a product to another country at a price which is either below...
by developing nations, the
Confederation of British IndustryThe Confederation of British Industry is a not for profit organisation incorporated by Royal charter which promotes the interests of its members, some 200,000 British businesses, a figure which includes some 80% of FTSE 100 companies and around 50% of FTSE 350 companies.-Role:The CBI works to...
urged the government not to start a 'tit-for-tat'.
Diplomacy
In October 2007 The United Kingdom's first
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
government minister,
Shahid MalikShahid Malik is a British Labour Party politician, the Member of Parliament for Dewsbury. He is currently a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Communities and Local Government.-Pre-Parliamentary Career:...
, rebuked US authorities after having been detained and searched for explosives at a Washington airport on his way home from a meeting with the US Department of Homeland Security. This was the second occasion on which this
Member of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of...
had been detained and searched, having received the same treatment at JFK airport during a visit to the United States in November 2006. Mr Malik remarked: 'The abusive attitude I endured last November I forgot about and I forgave, but I really do believe that British ministers and
parliamentariansThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
should be afforded the same respect and dignity at USA airports that we would bestow upon our colleagues in the
SenateThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate and the House are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution . Each U.S state is represented by two senators,...
and
CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election....
.'
The ongoing refusal of the
US embassyThe Embassy of the United States of America to the Court of St James's is at the American Embassy London Chancery Building, in Grosvenor Square, Westminster, London...
in
Grosvenor SquareGrosvenor Square is a large garden square in the exclusive Mayfair district of London, England. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Dukes of Westminster, and takes its name from their surname, "Grosvenor"....
to pay the
London congestion chargeThe London congestion charge is a fee for some motorists travelling within those parts of London designated as the Congestion Charge Zone . The main objectives of this charge are to reduce congestion, and to raise funds for investment in London's transport system...
has also been a minor source of controversy. Embassy officials claimed they did not have to pay the congestion charge because it was a
taxTo tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law.Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
, from which diplomats were exempt. London officials asserted that the congestion charge was no different from the
tollRoad toll is the term used in some countries for the number of deaths caused annually by road accidents.The term is in common and official use in Australia and New Zealand.-Australia:In Australia the road toll is reported at a state level...
charges paid by drivers to travel into US cities such as
ManhattanManhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.New York County, which has the same boundaries as the Borough of Manhattan , is the most densely populated county in the United States, with a 2008 population of 1,634,795...
via bridges and roads. US embassies paid similar congestion charges in
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
and
Oslois the capital and largest city in Norway. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the town was largely destroyed by a fire in 1624. The Danish–Norwegian king Christian IV rebuilt the city as Christiania . Oslo, then an alternative name, became official again in 1925...
.
Current status
Although
British Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of Her Majesty's Government...
Gordon BrownJames Gordon Brown is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party. Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader of the governing Labour Party...
stated his support for the United States on assuming office in 2007, he appointed ministers to the
Foreign OfficeThe Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO, is the British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
who had been critical of aspects of the relationship or of recent US policy. A
WhitehallWhitehall is a road in Westminster in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards traditional Charing Cross, now at the southern end of Trafalgar Square and marked by the statue of Charles I, which is often regarded as the heart of London...
source said: 'It will be more businesslike now, with less emphasis on the meeting of personal visions you had with Bush and Blair.' Present British policy is that the relationship with the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
remains the United Kingdom's 'most important bilateral relationship'.
Prior to his election as US president in 2008,
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first president born in Hawaii...
, hinting Blair had been let down by Bush, declared: 'We have a chance to recalibrate the relationship and for the United Kingdom to work with America as a full partner.'
After her first ministerial-level talks with British Foreign Secretary
David MilibandDavid Wright Miliband is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for South Shields since 2001, and is the current Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs...
in February 2009, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: 'It's often said that the United States and Great Britain have long enjoyed a special relationship. It is certainly special in my mind, and one that has proven very productive. Whoever is in the
White HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian style and has been the residence of every...
, whichever party in our country, this relationship really stands the test of time.' Miliband spoke of a commitment 'to renew and refresh the special relationship'.
On meeting Brown as president for the first time in March 2009, Obama reaffirmed that 'Great Britain is one of our closest and strongest allies and there is a link and bond there that will not break... This notion that somehow there is any lessening of that special relationship is misguided... The relationship is not only special and strong but will only get stronger as time goes on.' Commentators, however, noted that the recurring use of 'special partnership' by
White House Press SecretaryThe White House Press Secretary is a senior White House official whose primary responsibility is to act as spokesperson for the government administration. Since January 20, 2009, Robert Gibbs is the Press Secretary to U.S...
Robert GibbsRobert L. Gibbs is an American political consultant and the current White House Press Secretary. Gibbs was the communications director for U.S. Senator Barack Obama and Obama's 2008 presidential campaign...
could be signaling an effort to recast terms. One commentator noted the new term in a review of the HMS
Gannet-pen holder which Brown presented to the president, and other gifts exchanged at the time. Obama presented Brown with 25 DVDs of American movies.
The following week British
Cabinet SecretaryA Cabinet Secretary is almost always a senior official who provides services and advice to a Cabinet of Ministers. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powers, including general responsibility for the entire civil service...
Sir
Gus O'DonnellSir Augustine Thomas O'Donnell, KCB, born 1 October 1952, known as Sir Gus O'Donnell , is the Cabinet Secretary, the highest ranking civil servant in the British Civil Service...
, trying to plan the G-20
London summitThe G-20 Leaders' Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy was held in London on 2 April 2009 at the ExCeL Centre. It followed the first G-20 Leaders Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy, which was held in Washington, D.C. on 14–15 November 2008...
, said it was hard to deal with
US TreasuryThe Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
officials because they were 'unreachable'. The special relationship was also reported to be 'strained' after a senior
US State DepartmentThe United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, similar to foreign ministries, foreign offices, ministries of external relations, etc. in other countries...
official criticised a British decision to talk to the political wing of
HezbollahHezbollah is a Shi'a Islamist political and paramilitary organisation based in Lebanon. Hezbollah is now also a major provider of social services, which operate schools, hospitals, and agricultural services for thousands of Lebanese Shiites, and plays a significant force in Lebanese politics...
, complaining the United States had not been properly informed. The protest came after the Obama administration had said it was prepared to talk to
HamasHamas is a Palestinian Islamic socio-political organization which includes a paramilitary force, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
and at the same time as it was making overtures to
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
and
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
. A senior Foreign Office official responded: 'This should not have come as a shock to any official who might have been in the previous administration and is now in the current one.’
In June 2009 the special relationship was reported to have 'taken another hit' after the British government was said to be 'angry' over the failure of the US to seek its approval before negotiating with
BermudaBermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, it is situated around 1,770 kilometres northeast of Miami, Florida, and 1,350 kilometres south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada...
the resettlement to the
British overseas territoryThe British overseas territories are fourteen territories that are under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom, but which do not form part of the United Kingdom itself....
of four ex-Guantanamo Bay inmates wanted by
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'It's something that we should have been consulted about.' Asked whether the men might be sent back to
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
, he replied: 'We are looking into all possible next steps.' The move prompted an urgent security assessment by the British government. Shadow Foreign Secretary
William HagueWilliam Jefferson Hague is a British politician. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Richmond , Shadow Foreign Secretary and Senior Member of the Shadow Cabinet...
demanded an explanation from Miliband, as comparisons were drawn with his previous embarrassment over the US use of
Diego GarciaDiego García is an island considered the largest atoll, in terms of land area, of the Chagos Archipelago, and is part of the British Indian Ocean Territories. The island is located in the Indian Ocean, about 1,600 km south of the southern coast of India...
for extraordinary rendition without British knowledge, with one commentator describing the affair as 'a wake-up call' and 'the latest example of American governments ignoring Britain when it comes to US interests in British territories abroad'.
In August 2009, while America was engaged in a heated debate regarding President Barack Obama's healthcare reform proposals in the United States, American media outlets asked
Daniel HannanDaniel John Hannan is a British politician and Member of the European Parliament, representing South East England for the Conservative Party....
MEP to describe the healthcare in the United Kingdom on their programmes and television stations. Hannan's reply to the questions was that he wouldnt wish the NHS on anybody what so ever and repeatedly lambasted the NHS. Conservative leader
David CameronDavid William Donald Cameron is the leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition in the United Kingdom. He has occupied both positions since December 2005....
disavowed Hannan's comments and called the MEP 'a man with eccentric views', this incident angered many in the United Kingdom and thousands took to micro-blogging site
TwitterTwitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers...
to voice their outrage.
In August 2009 the special relationship was again reported to have 'taken another blow' with the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the man convicted of the 1988
Lockerbie BombingPan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London's Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. On Wednesday 21 December 1988, the aircraft flying this route—a Boeing 747-121 named Clipper Maid of the Seas—was...
on compassionate grounds, Hillary Clinton said 'it was absolutely wrong to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi' adding 'We are still encouraging the Scottish authorities not to do so and hope they will not', President Barack Obama also commented that the release of al-Megrahi was a 'mistake' and 'highly objectionable', Colonel Gaddafi of Libya expressed his gratitude towards Prime Minister
Gordon BrownJames Gordon Brown is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party. Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader of the governing Labour Party...
and Scottish Justice Secretary
Kenny MacAskillKenneth "Kenny" Wright MacAskill is a Scottish National Party politician, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh since 2007.- Background and family life :...
for the release.
See also
- United Kingdom–United States relations
- Foreign relations of the United Kingdom
The foreign relations of the United Kingdom are the relationships and policies that the United Kingdom maintains with other countries, which are implemented by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Throughout history the U.K. has wielded significant influence upon other nations through control of...
- Foreign policy of the United States
- The Great Rapprochement
The Great Rapprochement, a term usually attributed to Bradford Perkins, is used to describe the convergence of social and political objectives between the United States and the British Empire in the two decades before World War I.- Mixed Feelings :...
- ABCA Armies
ABCA Armies refers to a program aimed at optimizing interoperability between member armies on combined operations. "ABCA" stands for America, Britain, Canada and Australia...
- The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP)
The Technical Cooperation Program is a long standing international organisation concerned with cooperation on defense science and technology matters, including national security and civil defense...
- 1943 BRUSA Agreement
The 1943 BRUSA Agreement was an agreement between the British and US governments to facilitate co-operation between the US War Department and the British Government Code and Cypher School...
External links
- June 2002, Policy Review
Policy Review is one of America's leading conservative journals. It was founded by the Heritage Foundation and was for many years the foundation's flagship publication...
, The State of the Special Relationship
- November 2006, The Times
The Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
, State Department Official disparages the relationship
- May 2007, Professor Stephen Haseler
Stephen Haseler is Professor of Government at London Metropolitan University and Director of the Global Policy Institute. His specialisms are British politics, the UK Constitution, Transatlantic relations and European defence...
(Global Policy Institute, London Metropolitan University) has written a book examining the history of the special relationship from a British perspective entitled Sidekick: Bulldog to Lapdog, British Global Strategy from Churchill to Blair
- February 2009, The Guardian
The Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
, Presidents and prime ministers: a look back at previous first meetings of US and UK leaders