The phrase “Special Relationship” was coined by Winston Churchill in postwar triumph. It survives today in strain.
The call for Britain and America to continue their wartime alliance was a clarion call to defend against Soviet aggression.
It worked. The West won the Cold War and in the post-Cold War years the two countries have seen advantage – Britain more than the US—in continuing to cooperate in military and intelligence matters to counter terrorism and rogue states such as Afghanistan.
Of course, over 80 years, the “Special Relationship” has had its ups and downs. At the moment, it is having a serious down. King Charles’s successful visit has done little more than apply a sticking plaster to the widening transatlantic gulf.
However, the ties between Britain and the United States are more than political. As I make clear in my book “America Made in Britain” (note subtle plug), they cover the entire gamut of human relations and include language, trade, finance, philosophy, religion, law, sport, theatre, publishing…. The fact is that the two countries are joined at the historical hip and not even Donald Trump or JD Vance can change the past.
The political, military and intelligence ties that politicians call “The Special Relationship” would not be possible without our shared history.
Let us start with the law—the bedrock on which every nation is built. Every American state’s legal system is based on English common law. There is one exception—Louisiana’s French history means its legal system is based on the French. The federal courts and the Supreme Court use English common law and regularly refer to the Magna Carta medieval English court cases in their judgements.
Almost all the major American religious organisations—Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Quakers, Unitarians, Congregationalists, and Baptists—started in Britain before crossing the Atlantic. Roman Catholics secured their foothold in Maryland which was designated as a haven for Britain’s Catholics.
Britain and America are each other’s biggest foreign investor. American investment in Britain is $900 billion and creates 1.6 million jobs. Britain has $800 billion invested in the US and creates 1.4 million jobs.
America’s Declaration of Independence and constitution are the political expression of the English Age of Enlightenment. Sir Isaac Newton laid the foundations of the enlightenment in his 1687 “Principia” when he shifted the balance of society so that it was no longer based on faith and belief but on scientific observation and logically determined mathematical formulae.
Newton was followed in 1698 by John Locke who echoed the future words of Thomas Jefferson when he wrote in his “Two Treatises of Government that under “natural law” all people have the right to “life, liberty and property.” He further argued that that the governed have the right to overthrow incompetent rulers.
The lawyer William Blackstone was at the tail end of the English Enlightenment. His 1771 legal compendium “Commentaries” became the bible of constitutional law on both sides of the Atlantic. It was Sir William who established the systems of checks and balances which are at the heart of the American political system. All the basic tenets of America’s Bill of Rights were first enunciated in Blackstone’s “Commentaries.
It is one of history’s greatest ironies that England’s Age of Enlightenment found its ultimate expression in a successful rebellion against English authority.
It was not just noble thoughts that shaped America. British Wars, clearances, enclosures, the slave trade and political repression all contributed to the country’s demographic makeup. An estimated 42 million African-Americans—14 percent of the population—are descended from slaves who were transported across the Atlantic in British ships. Some 20,000 Irish prisoners of war were transported to America as indentured servants. A similar fate was suffered by about 10,000 Scots. More Scots followed Jacobite rebellions in 1715 and 1745 and after the Highland clearances forced them out of their crofts. And, of course, the major Irish migration followed the potato famine. There are about 40 million Irish-Americans and nine million Scots-Americans who live in America because of past British actions. Interesting enough, only seven million Americans claim descent from English stock.
The people traffic was two-way. During the English Civil Wars about a quarter of New Englanders sailed back to England to support the parliamentarians. Among them was an early Harvard graduate George (later Sir George) Downing. When Cromwell died, he switched sides to support the restoration monarchy and in the 1680s he went into the property business and built Downing Street. Sir George was later appointed British ambassador to the Netherlands and helped to lay the financial foundations of the British economy. Samuel Pepys said he was an unpleasant man.
In sport, baseball owes its existence to cricket and rounders. Boxing is based on rules set down by the Earl of Queensberry. Golf has its roots in Scotland. Tennis is quintessentially English and American football is linked to rugby, which was more popular and, in the US, won Olympic gold in the sport in the 1920 and 1924 Olympics.
Both American and British theatre are descended from the Shakespearean tradition as are its offshoots radio, television and films. Radio was something of an international cooperation venture, but the scientific foundations are British. Television is very British. It was invented by John Logie Baird and Britain might have dominated the industry if World War Two had not intervened. As it is, British actors regularly cross the Atlantic to appear on the American stage, in films and on television.
The English language is the strongest tie between the countries, despite efforts on both sides of the Atlantic to misunderstand each other. The common language means strong educational links, a transatlantic publishing industry and, of course the entertainment industry referred to above.
Churchill’s politically based “Special Relationship” was not created out of the ether. It was the fruit of ties going back to the first settlers in the thirteen colonies. The “Special Relationship” may currently be down. It may be going through a period of reassessment and readjustment. But history dictates that it can never be dead.
* Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice. He also contributes to “The New World” magazine and lectures on world affairs. He is the author of “America Made in Britain,” two editions of “The Encyclopaedia of the Cold War” and “The Falklands Crisis.”
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22 Comments
Tom, yet another great article. The sentence I like most is: ‘Sir Isaac Newton laid the foundations of the enlightenment in his 1687 “Principia” when he shifted the balance of society so that it was no longer based on faith and belief but on scientific observation and logically determined mathematical formulae.’
As a lousy Mathematician but a successful engineer I believe Newton was right. I sold my company to Canadians and my Expert System generator, a pre-AI invention, to the USA. I also believe society should not be based on faith and belief. But those that have a faith should be respected. It is too easy to denigrate other religions.
The USA is a far off country about which we know far too much.
There are so many things to admire about The US but we must not forget that it is not a Civilised country, even by the low standards of British culture. The US has far more in common with Mexico or Brazil than it does with Britain.
The only part of The UK that is at all like The US is Northern Ireland.
There’s a lot to criticise America for Paul, but not being civilised isn’t one of them.
On the international list of the world’s best universities, 14 of the top 20 are American. Four are British. Of the top 100, only 4 are French, and Heidelberg is one of 4 that creeps in for the Germans. America has won 338 Nobel Prizes. The U.K., 119. France, 59. America has more Nobel Prizes than Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and Russia combined.
Uncivilised are some of the Middle Eastern and most African hell holes.
Craig, some of those statistics you quote need to be examined in terms of population size (and possibly some other factors). Quoting country statistics for ‘achievement’ is overlooking some huge variations in population size. Just as an example, looking at Nobel Prizes the UK seems to far exceed the US on a per capita basis on the basis of the figures you quote. Statistics can be used in a lot of different ways, but even if we define a measure of civilisation as ranking of universities and Nobel prizes (I personally think there are many other measures to consider….) I think we should at least try to make fair comparisons recognising huge variations in population sizes.
And perhaps calling African countries ‘hell holes’ is something we should try to avoid?
Pro rata or not Mark – to say that USA is not civilised country simply doesn’t stack up . Democracy , Supreme Court, Regional State Representation,
Property rights, Rule of law, trial by juries. Twain, Hemingway, Elliot..Dorothy Parker, I could go on and on etc etc …As for the African comment as an eg – 2.5 million people of Dutch European descent built a country to European standards – it’s only taken 35 years for the anc to destroy it ….like most of that continent it’s a list of failed states ….
Let’s be clear what Craig Levene stands for when he claims ‘European standards’ for Apartheid South Africa :
Apartheid was a brutal system of legalized racial segregation in South Africa (1948–1994) that dehumanized the Black majority, reserving 80% of land for the white minority.
It enforced extreme inequalities via forced removals, pass laws, inferior education, and prohibitions on mixed marriage or skilled jobs, causing profound, lasting poverty and trauma. The evils of apartheid included: Forced Separation and Dispossession: The Group Areas Act (1950) classified citizens and forcibly removed millions of Black people from their homes to crowded, impoverished “homelands”.
“Petty” Apartheid Restrictions: Daily life was strictly segregated, with separated, inferior facilities—hospitals, beaches, toilets, and transport—for non-whites.
Pass Laws: Black residents had to carry passbooks to enter “white” urban areas, making them migrants in their own country and causing daily fear of arrest .
Economic Exploitation: Skilled jobs were reserved for white people, and black wages were kept artificially low. Bantu Education: Specifically designed to train Black learners for manual labour, severely restricting their economic and intellectual prospects. and Oppression: Resistance was met with violence, including the Sharpeville Massacre (1960) and the Soweto Uprising (1976), alongside detention without trial and torture. Violation of Personal Liberty: Mixed marriages and sexual relationships between white and non-white citizens were illegal.
Someone who lives in The US is about 140 times as likely to die of gunshot wounds as someone who lives in The UK.
Many Americans find it hard to say the word Toilet.
There are US States where it is legal to shoot dead anyone on your property – that would put Focus deliveries in a different light.
Most US Cities have ghettos in a way that Britain doesn’t. Again, Northern Ireland is the only parallel in The UK.
I could easily write a long list of things I adore about The US but, but …
The USA was full of great contradictions when I lived in Philadelphia 40 years ago. Some fantastic restaurants and then a 200 yard queue at the butchers on the first Saturday in the month when people were able to redeem their food stamps. I think the inequality has got worse since then.
I haven’t said the US is not civilised, but there is a fair debate to be had about just how civilised it is. This was a country that until 60 years ago had many states with racial segregration in its schools, public transport and many venues – and where measures were in place to prevent black people voting. Lynchings were also a reality. It is to this day a country of immense inequality in terms of income, wealth, health and life expectancy and with a very high crime rate (based on real statistics). Paul Barker’s comment is spot on. It is a country where even middle class families worry about health bills. As for your comment about South Africa are you saying it is was a civilised country before the first all citizen election in 1994?
I lived and worked in the the USA.. I like the ‘people’ but abhor their corrupt political and judicial systems..
“Someone who lives in The US is about 140 times as likely to die of gunshot wounds as someone who lives in The UK.”
We may not have a major gunshot problem but we do have a knife problem:
https://theworlddata.com/knife-crime-statistics-in-uk/
I have not visited the USA since the mid-1990s but if I did go I would be worrying about such issues as – in some US states one could be ambling round a shopping centre minding one’s own business and a nearby child gets hold of a gun legally carried by their parent and uses it.
How do the Suez crisis and the American invasion of Grenada fit into the “Special Relationship”?
https://www.tomorrowsworld.org/magazines/2016/november-december/the-suez-crisis-60-years-on?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22829321883&gbraid=0AAAAA
https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/conyers-v-reagan
@Steve: the first link seems to suggest that a special relationship with god is more important.
It’s over 30 years since the Anc took control of South Africa. A country as close to European standards as you could get on that continent.
In that time it’s whole infrastructure has deteriorated, Durban train station finished , world class hospitals – now unrecognisable, electric power cuts , water doesn’t flow, and is run by a corrupt leadership…I understand it’s difficult for David to acknowledge that – but it’s fact.
@Craig Levene
“It’s over 30 years since the Anc took control of South Africa. A country as close to European standards as you could get on that continent.”
European standards? Available all irrespective of their skin colour?
The part where the so-called special relationship deteriorated is where the ruling class in Britain took it. Churchill & Roosevelt needed to promote something better than an alliance to win WW2. Against an isolationist background. The Special Relationship worked for them and was useful.
Into the 1950s Tory PM Harold MacMillan explained: “We, my dear Crossman, are the Greeks in the American empire. You will find the Americans much as the Greeks found the Romans: great, big, vulgar, bustling people more vigorous than we are and also more idle, with more unspoiled virtues but also more corrupt.”
In the 1980s he revised his view, saying of the Thatcher sell-off “First of all the Georgian silver goes. And then all that nice furniture that used to be in the salon. Then the Canalettos go.”
And so it went, to Johnson and beyond. The default is the opposite of JFK who said “And do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
The civil service like to Buy American and so do large UK enterprises, “not because it is hard, but because it is easy”. Now who is more idle?
UNonconformistradical 2nd May ’26 – 6:39pm…..We may not have a major gunshot problem but we do have a knife problem:
https://theworlddata.com/knife-crime-statistics-in-uk
According to the CDC and National Safety Council, the US The United States has a significantly higher total number and per capita rate of knife homicides compared to the UK. In 2023, the US recorded roughly 1,688 stabbing deaths, while the UK recorded around 31, with the US rate of stabbing deaths at approximately \(0.49\) per 100,000 people compared to a much lower rate in the UK..
So, it seems that the US is worse in both gun AND knife crime..
Craig Levene claims Apartheid South Africa “was a country as close to European standards as you could get on that continent”. Would those standards include the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 ? I remember it well, but presumably Mr Levene prefers to forget it.
A crowd of approximately 5,000 people gathered in Sharpeville in 1960 in response to the call made by the Pan-Africanist Congress to leave their pass-books at home and to demand that the police arrest them for contravening the pass laws. The protesters were told they would be addressed by a government official and they waited outside the police station as more police officers arrived, including senior members of the Security Branch. At 1.30 pm, without issuing a warning, the police fired 1,344 rounds into the crowd.
For more than fifty years the number of people killed and injured has been based on the police record, which included 249 victims in total, including 29 children, with 69 people killed and 180 injured. More recent research has shown that at least 91 people were killed at Sharpeville and at least 238 people were wounded. Many people were shot in the back as they fled from the police.
Not something to admire or be proud of, Mr. Levene.
We need leaders with knowledge of army affairs now that NATO is almost dead.
We need army trained politicians at the helms of our major parties.
Who can be useful in responding to actions of the old and emerging superpowers.
I like Ed Davey, but the Lib Dems also need to look for a Paddy Ashdown type figure in a major role.
Labour has Alistair Carns.
Who do the Tories have?
Thanks for the history lesson David, but I’m positive the post was referring to the total failure in South Africa & Zimbabwe in the inability to maintain infrastructure, and the rampant corruption that goes with so many states on that continent. Paul’s point in regards a civil society – I’d rather my granddaughters grew up in America or Israel as opposed to those backwards theocratic societies that prevail across the middle east ..
Are there any special relationships left in the modern world? Almost all foreign policy is interest based and determined by the benefits. Of course geography and history play their part in most policies that involve others. That does not make them special, just taking into account these circumstances.