The future of US-UK relations? Prominent leave campaigner Nigel Farage speaks at a rally for Donald Trump in August. Gerald Herbert AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.There has been a strong tendency among British policymakers to view US-UK relations through a sentimental lens. Typically, the imagery of the ‘special’ relationship conjures up a shared Anglo-American heritage of language, history and the rule of law. It also evokes the image of shared wartime struggle and long-lasting military and intelligence cooperation under the leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Yet US policymakers take on a noticeably less sentimental understanding of US-UK relations, perhaps best described by former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, who once wrote “of course a unique relation existed between Britain and America … But unique did not mean affectionate.”
President Obama’s interventions during the UK’s recent EU referendum served as a stark reminder of how the United States perceives its relationship with Britain. Although the common bonds of history and language are undeniable, US policy towards Britain has always been grounded in rational political interest. Indeed, Obama’s comments made it clear that the weight the US assigns to Britain as a global player depends in large measure on its membership of the European Union, stating as he did during a Downing Street press conference, that the UK’s membership “keeps the EU open, outward looking, and closely linked to its allies on the other side of the Atlantic.” Moreover, Obama linked a British withdrawal from the EU with wider concerns around international security: “if you start seeing divisions in Europe, that weakens NATO, that will have an impact on our collective security.”
US policy towards Britain has always been grounded in rational political interest
For the US, Britain’s strategic importance as an ally has been its ability to project an Atlanticist outlook. Fundamental to this viewpoint is the need for close military, political and economic cooperation between the EU and the US. Since the end of the second world war, American policy has actively promoted European integration as a means of strengthening US global influence and power. Post-war administrations projected American economic influence with the introduction of the Marshall Plan, which effectively promoted free-market capitalism throughout western Europe. Additionally, the establishment of NATO as the essential source of transatlantic defence cooperation ensured that European defence interests would be closely entwined with those of America.
