ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the British public’s views towards the United Kingdom- United States (US) special relationship and the transatlantic security alliance in the form of the country’s long-standing membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), which have been integral parts of the post-war bipartisan consensus forged in foreign and defence policy. It examines the public’s views over time on Britain’s most important post-war international relationships—Churchill’s interlocking ‘three circles’, Europe, America and the Commonwealth—which have framed so much political debate over the country’s international role in the post-war era. The chapter focuses in depth on attitudes towards Britain’s relations with the US, including cross-national comparisons as well as profiling the bases of pro- and anti-American sentiment in wider British society. Britain was a founding member of NATO in 1949. Public opinion towards NATO in its member countries has been given added topicality for several reasons.
