ABSTRACT
The Anglo-American rivalry remains something of a puzzle for historical structural analysts. Here we have two states. One represented the very apex of the world system’s power structure, the other at some point its most probable successor. They had fought each other but only in wars that had long preceded the point of power transition. Not only did they not fight as the United States was catching up with Britain, they ended more than a century of hostile relations and became first informal allies and then formal allies. Still later, they developed their famed special relationship. Why? If structural change does have some explanatory power, one would have thought the very opposite would have occurred.1 Moreover, there was simply too much at stake for something on the order of Anglo-Saxon sentimentality to account for this otherwise peculiar behavior. Thus, the shift in the Anglo-American relationship from hostile rivalry to amicable cooperation raises important theoretical questions about structural explanations in world politics.
