ABSTRACT
The political and military relationship between Great Britain and the United States – the ‘Special Relationship’ – that developed during the Second World War was a strategic partnership. As the basis of the Western alliance during that struggle and the Cold War, it played an essential part in bringing stability to the evolving post-1945 international order. None of this suggests that social, cultural, and even philosophical ties linking the two English-speaking peoples were unimportant – or remain. They possess a common language, a conviction that ordered society finds basis on common law, a belief that capitalism provides the greatest good for the greatest number, and a confidence in liberal democratic governance and religious freedom. Tied to emotion and sentiment, these links underpinned the diplomatic and military relationship. Nor does it mean that the relationship was always smooth or its ‘special’ character universally accepted in each country. The perceived national interests of the two Powers did not always converge after 1941 – sometimes they collided spectacularly. Nonetheless, guided and used by British and American leaders for purely pragmatic reasons, the ‘special’ diplomatic and military relationship developed after September 1939 in a wartime context of expediency and realpolitik shorn of emotion and sentiment. After 1945, recognising its diplomatic and military utility, the foreign-policy-making elites in both states sustained it. Quite simply, working together offered the best means to protect and extend their perceived national interests and, thereby, better ensure international stability.
