Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

There is no relationship in history which has been so dissected and discussed as that between the US and the UK. Sometimes dismissed as a fiction, but a mandatory point of reference for contact between the two governments of whatever political stripe, this peculiar bond defies definition. This blog will now try to do just that.

President Obama has begun to talk about an essential relationship. He is right to give more precision to the notion of this bond; special can mean almost anything, essential has  more bite. To test all this we have to go back to an older war, the America War of Independence. The two countries recall this drama with sharply different emotions. For America it was the moment of triumph, the genesis of its very being. For England it was a loss of its American colonies, which was no big deal. They were a nuisance anyway.

England was wrong in this laid back view. It was the single biggest disaster to befall the British Empire and guaranteed its early demise. For America became not just a country, but a dream and an ideal. It sucked people and resources west across the Atlantic. Worst of all it became a rival and a jealous rival at that. It pedalled a disruptive message to the millions under British rule – take your freedom as we took ours. One by one they did.

Into the vacuum of authority left by the unravelling of the British Empire post WWII, stepped the now omnipotent United States, confident, victorious, rich and growing richer. Such was the aura of triumph and righteousness which followed America across the globe that none remembered the native  people of that continent , crushed and herded into so called reservations, nor speared many thoughts for the blacks in their struggle for equality in this land of the free, nor recalled the shattered and starving Confederacy. America was wholly good, the British Empire was wholly bad.

Of course, neither label was true to the facts. Both were part good and part bad. Oddly both had the same ideals, though each put a different gloss on what these might be. The US, one of the most democratic of all free countries and a republic, promoted democracy above everything. The UK, much less democratic in its institutions and remaining a monarchy, promoted freedom and above all freedom of speech. But in the end, when it came to a crunch on big issues, they mostly wound up in the same place. This was sometimes good,   but occasionally bad. Of one thing there was no doubt, America was on the way up. Britain was on the way down.

Times have changed. America too is slipping. Other unremarked countries of yesterday are the rising powers of tomorrow. For the first time both the UK and the US have the same geopolitical dynamic.Their business model, which failed so spectacularly was not only similar but intertwined.

The interrelationship between the two, financially, culturally, militarily and in common ancestry far outstrips the common ties of any other nations on earth. There is meaning in the phrase Anglo-American. It speaks of two countries. But they are one nation.

That is the essence of this perplexing relationship. That is why it is special or essential or whatever. It is there whether you want it or not. It is fundamental. Moreover, treat them as one nation with a common heritage and purpose, link their two economies as one, combine their military assets and you have still the greatest power on earth. They need each other. They also owe untold $trillions to everybody else.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Malcolm Blair Robinson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.