Special Relationship (US-UK) Totally Explained

Everything about Special Relationship Us-uk totally explained

The phrase special relationship has been used to describe the largely positive political, diplomatic, cultural and historical relations between the United States and the United Kingdom. The phrase in this context originated in a 1946 speech by Winston Churchill.
The United States maintains close relationships with many countries, however the level of cooperation in military planning, execution of military operations, nuclear weapon technology sharing and intelligence sharing between the U.S. and UK has been described as "unparalleled".

History and overview

The origin of the term is Winston Churchill's "Sinews of Peace Address" in Fulton, Missouri, better known for addressing post-war communism and the rise of the Iron Curtain. Churchill was himself half-American and felt keenly the links between the English-speaking peoples. He first used the term in 1945 to describe not the UK - US relationship alone but the UK relationship with both Canada and the United States. A year later he again used the phrase, this time to note the special relationship between the United States on the one hand, and the English-speaking countries of the British Commonwealth and Empire under the leadership of the United Kingdom on the other.
This was a new approach to the relations between the two countries. During World War I, for example, President Woodrow Wilson and Prime Minister David Lloyd George had enjoyed nothing that could be described as a special relationship, although Lloyd George's wartime Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, got on well with Wilson during his time in the United States and helped convince a sceptical Wilson to enter the war.
The British didn't follow US policy in Vietnam (at least not officially - nor commit troops), although Australia and New Zealand were English-speaking allies of the United States within the British Commonwealth that did commit troops and participate in the Vietnam War.
President Bush stated that Britain was America's "closest friend in the world" in November 2003 in the Banqueting House in London. However, President Bush's favours were rather promiscuous: he also said "We have no greater friend than Mexico" (September 2001), and "We have no better friend than Canada" (February 2002). The 'special relationship' was most recently demonstrated during the war in Iraq.
During the worst periods of the cold war the United Kingdom was jokingly referred to as the "biggest aircraft carrier in the world."

Military cooperation

The unparalleled level of military co-operation began with the creation of the Combined Chiefs of Staff in December 1941, a military command with authority over all American and British operations. This cooperation has increased steadily since the early 1950s when military contacts were re-established.; it's argued that US assistance for the UK nuclear deterrent is in breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Military procurement

The UK is the only "level one" international partner in the largest U.S. aircraft procurement project in history, the F-35 Lightning II program. The UK was involved in writing the specification and selection and its largest defense contractor BAE Systems is a partner of the American prime contractor Lockheed Martin. BAE Systems is also the largest foreign supplier to the United States Defense Department and has been permitted to buy important US defense companies such as Lockheed Martin Aerospace Electronic Systems and United Defense.
Other joint projects include the RAF Harrier GR9 or United States Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier II and the US Navy T-45 Goshawk. Both nations also operate several common designs, including the Javelin anti-tank missile, M270 rocket artillery, the Apache gunship, C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.

Other areas of cooperation

Intelligence sharing

The special relationship has maintained ties in collecting and sharing intelligence since World War II. This aspect of the relationship originally grew from the common goal of monitoring and countering the threat of communism.
One present-day example of such cooperation is the UKUSA Community, comprising the USA's National Security Agency, the UK's Government Communications Headquarters, Australia's Defence Signals Directorate and Canada's Communications Security Establishment collaborating on ECHELON, a global intelligence gathering system. Moreover, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada are the only countries which the CIA has publicly stated that it doesn't spy upon. This is generally interpreted as meaning that the CIA doesn't maintain intelligence agents in these aforementioned countries.

Economic policy

The United States is the largest source of Foreign Direct Investment to the UK economy, likewise the UK is the largest single investor in the US economy.British trade and capital have been important components of the American economy since its colonial inception.

Personal relationships

The relationship often depends on the personal relations between British Prime Ministers and U.S. Presidents. The first example was the close relationship between Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt who were in fact distantly related.
   Prior to their collaboration during World War II Anglo-American relations had been somewhat frosty. President Woodrow Wilson and Prime Minister David Lloyd George had enjoyed nothing that could be described as a special relationship, although Lloyd George's wartime Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, got on well with Wilson during his time in the United States and helped convince a previously skeptical Wilson to enter the war. Churchill, himself half-American, spent much time and effort cultivating the relationship which paid dividends for the war effort though it cost Britain much of her wealth and ultimately her empire. Two great architects of the special relationship on a practical level were Field Marshal Sir John Dill and General George Marshall whose excellent personal relations and senior positions (Roosevelt was especially close to Marshall) oiled the wheels of the alliance considerably.
   The links that were created during the war—such as the British military liaison officers posted to Washington—persist. However for Britain to gain any benefit from the relationship it became clear that a constant policy of personal engagement was required. Britain starting off in 1941 as somewhat the senior partner had quickly found itself the junior. The diplomatic policy was thus two pronged, encompassing strong personal support and equally forthright military and political aid. These two have always operated in tandem, that's to say the best personal relationships between British prime ministers and American presidents have always been those based around shared goals. For example, Harold Wilson's government wouldn't commit troops to Vietnam. Harold Wilson and Lyndon Johnson didn't get on especially well.
Peaks in the special relationship include the bonds between Harold Macmillan (who like Churchill had an American mother) and John F. Kennedy, and between Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Nadirs have included the American government's opposition to British operations in Suez under Anthony Eden and Wilson's refusal to enter the war in Vietnam.
   While the relationship between the two countries may have been strained by Reagan's neutrality in the initial phases of the Falklands War, this was more than countered by the US Defense Secretary, Casper Weinberger, who approved shipments of the latest weapons to the massing British task force. Bill Clinton was poorly disposed towards John Major after it was alleged that the Conservative government had allowed his Republican opponents access to British documents detailing his time at Oxford University. Friction in their relationship was also demonstrated when in March 1995 Major refused to answer the phone calls of Clinton over his decision to invite Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams to the White House for Saint Patrick's Day.

Bush and Blair

The relationship between Tony Blair and George W. Bush served to highlight the nature of the special relationship by increasing the importance of Britain in relation to the US. Following the September 11 Attacks in New York and Washington DC, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair flew to Washington. In a speech to the United States Congress, nine days after the attack, President Bush declared "America has no truer friend than Great Britain." Following that speech Blair embarked on two months of diplomacy gathering international support for military action. The BBC estimates that, in total, the prime minister held 54 meetings with world leaders and travelled more than 40,000 miles (60,000 km).
   The involvement in the war in Iraq of Tony Blair damaged his standing at home (both in the country at large, and especially within his own party) and in the rest of Europe, but helped to buttress the relationship at least to the end of his term in office in June 2007, after the re-election of George W. Bush. When Bush first took office in January 2001, it was predicted by some that Third Way/Clintonesque Blair and the conservative Bush would have little common ground but in fact their shared beliefs and responses to the international situation following 9/11 formed a commonality of purpose. Blair, like Bush, was convinced of the importance of moving against the new threat both perceived to international order.
   At the time of the 2004 U.S. presidential election, Blair didn't demonstrate any preference of candidate in the election. Although the majority of his party was backing Kerry, the Prime Minister was unable to voice such support for fear of damaging relations with Bush if he were to be re-elected. On the other hand, supporting Bush would have damaged links between Labour and the Democrats as well as infuriating a large proportion of backbench Labour Members of Parliament, many of whom are highly critical of Blair's relationship with Bush.
   The 2006 Lebanon War has caused some tension between the United States and UK. The apparent support of both Tony Blair and the United States administration for Israel caused disquiet among the general public and Tony Blair's cabinet. On 27 July, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett openly criticised the US for "ignoring procedure" when using Prestwick Airport as a stop off point for delivering laser-guided bombs to Israel. On 17 August, The Independent reported that Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott had said that George Bush was "crap" with regard to the Middle East Roadmap, which Prescott felt had been a condition of his support for the war in Iraq.

Public opinion

A June 2006 poll by Populus for The Times showed that the number of Britons agreeing that "it is important for Britain’s long-term security that we've a close and special relationship with the US" had fallen to 58% (from 71% in April), and that 65% believed that "Britain’s future lies more with Europe than America." 44% agreed that "America is a force for good in the world." A later poll reported in The Guardian during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict said that 63% of Britons felt that Britain is tied too closely to the US. A 2008 poll by The Economist has shown that Britons' views differ considerably from Americans' views when asked about the topics of religion, values, and national interest.

Iraq

Refusal of the US Government to heed British advice regarding post-war plans for Iraq, specifically the critical importance of preventing the power vacuum in which the current insurgency plaguing the country was allowed to develop. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Britain criticised America's de-Ba'athification policy for example the purging of Saddam Hussein's party from government. Geoff Hoon, then the British defence secretary, has stated that Britain "lost the argument" with the Bush administration over rebuilding Iraq. Speaking on the same topic, Prince Andrew said there are "occasions when people in the U.K. would wish that those in responsible positions in the U.S. might listen and learn from our experiences", that there's "healthy skepticism" in Britain toward what is said in Washington DC, and a feeling of "why didn't anyone listen to what was said [inthe UK] and the advice that was given." CNN have acknowledged that the Prince's views are widely shared in the UK.
After the Iraq War, there were a series of coroners' inquests into so-called friendly fire incidents relating to UK armed servicemen who had been killed by US forces. The US Government routinely hindered the coroner's investigation by refusing to cooperate. In January 2007 this culminated in the US preventing the release of cockpit videos showing events leading to the death of Lance-Corporal Matty Hull of the Household Cavalry, and threatening newspapers who published them with prosecution. This particular incident caused a diplomatic row.

Extraordinary rendition

False assurances made by the American government to the British government that "extraordinary rendition" flights have never landed on British territory (for example Diego Garcia), when in fact official US records prove that such flights have landed there repeatedly. These revelations have embarrassed Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who made no secret of the political damage it has done in the UK. Miliband was forced to apologise to Members of Parliament, describing the incidents as "a most serious matter".
Doubts regarding the morality and legality of the American government's extraordinary rendition process, which ignores extradition treaties and officially sanctions the kidnap and extrajudicial transfer of people (some of them British citizens) from one country to another, sometimes to one of their covert CIA-run prisons, known as black sites, other times to Guantanamo Bay detention camp. The UK's Intelligence and Security Committee has stated that America's refusal to listen to British concerns regarding this issue had "serious implications" for future intelligence relations.

Criminal law

The US Government refused to accede to the treaty setting up the International Criminal Court, another UK priority. Foreign observers recalled the 1970s failure to bring the perpetrators of the My Lai massacre to justice.
   The US pressured the UK Government to agree to an unequal extradition treaty, whereby the UK needed to make a strong prima facie case to US courts before extradition was possible.
   In marked contrast, extradition from the UK to the US was a matter of administrative decision alone for example no prima facie evidence of guilt was required. This was initially seen as an anti-terrorist measure in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Very soon, however, it was being used by the US to extradite and prosecute a number of high-profile City of London businessmen (for example the Natwest Three and Ian Norris) on fraud charges. Contrasts have been drawn with the US's harbouring of Provisional IRA terrorists in the 1970s through to the 1990s. There has also been irritation that Americans who have killed British citizens in friendly fire incidents (where a subsequent inquest verdict of unlawful killing was returned) can't be extradited to the UK. On 30 September 2006 the US Senate unanimously ratified the treaty allowing for equal extradition requirements between the two countries. Ratification had been slowed by complaints from some Irish-American groups that the treaty would create new legal jeopardy for American citizens who opposed British policy in Northern Ireland.
   There have been a number of cases where cultural differences seem to have led to verdicts by US courts which have been perceived as markedly unjust in UK terms. One example was of an Aberdonian who after a "good night out" in a US city became lost and knocked on a door to ask the way; the householder shot him dead through the door and was later acquitted of any crime. Another was of Chantal McCorkle, a Briton imprisoned for over 24 years in 1998 following minor involvement in a trading fraud.

Trade policy

The US has been perceived to pursue an aggressive trade policy, using or ignoring WTO rules; the aspects of this causing most difficulty to the UK have been high tariffs on European (including UK) steel products and a successful challenge to the protection of small family banana farmers in the West Indies from large US corporations such as the American Financial Corporation.

Diplomacy

Britain's first Muslim Government Minister, Shahid Malik MP, protested on 28 October 2007 at having been detained and searched for explosives at a Washington airport on his way home (ironically) from a meeting with the US Department of Homeland Security. This was the second occasion on which this Member of Parliament had been detained and searched, having received the same treatment at JFK airport during a visit to the USA in November 2006. Mr Malik commented: "The abusive attitude I endured last November I forgot about and I forgave, but I really do believe that British ministers and parliamentarians should be afforded the same respect and dignity at USA airports that we'd bestow upon our colleagues in the Senate and Congress." The ongoing refusal of the US Embassy in London to pay the London congestion charge has irritated Londoners. American Embassy officials claim that they don't have to pay the congestion charge because it's a tax, from which diplomats are exempt. British officials have asserted that the congestion charge is no different from the toll charges paid by drivers to travel into American cities such as Manhattan via bridges and roads. American embassies pay similar congestion charges in Singapore and Oslo.

Anti-terrorism activities

Polls of the US public show that Britain, as an "ally in the war on terror" is viewed more positively than any other country. 76% of Americans polled viewed Great Britain as an "ally in the War on Terror" according to Rasmussen Reports. According to Harris Interactive 74% of Americans view Great Britain as a "close ally in the war in Iraq", well ahead of next-ranked Canada at 48%.

Current status

Although British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has stated his support for the United States, he's appointed ministers to the Foreign Office who have been critical of aspects of the relationship or of recent US policy. Present British policy is that the relationship with the United States represents Britain's "most important bilateral relationship".

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