ABSTRACT
In the early 1950s Winston Churchill popularised the concept of ‘three great circles among the free nations and democracies’ – the Commonwealth, the English-speaking world and Europe. ‘If you think of the three inter-linked circles’, Churchill argued, ‘you will see that we are the only country which has a great part in every one of them’ – through leadership of the Commonwealth, a ‘special relationship’ with the United States and close ‘association’ with the institutions of European security and prosperity. Britain’s influence in each one was reinforced by its role in the other two. 1
