ABSTRACT
The Cold War order had, by the late 1960s-early 1970s, proved in many ways to be a beneficial one for Britain. By the early 1970s it had become unquestionably a regional as opposed to a global power. The geopolitical and value changes brought about by the European revolutions of 1989 have, as outlined above, changed the nature of British policy towards Europe, and brought to the fore underlying themes contrary to the maintenance and extension of British influence on the continent. The relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States has often been troubled by Anglo-European relations in subtle ways, a history going back to the late 1940s. The strategic pressure on Flexible Response comes from the reduction in the number of systems left in the Europe of the 1990s. Although Britain has tried to increase the number of systems deployed in Europe, in fact the reverse has been occurring.
