This book seeks to demystify the persistence of the Anglo-American Special Relationship (AASR) in the post-Cold War era by constructing a new theory of alliance persistence. This theory of alliance persistence not only has stronger explanatory power than the predominant model of interests and sentiments, but also opens a new way for understanding what factors have prevented the AASR from collapsing. This innovative new volume fills the gap in AASR literature by focusing on the important role of institutionalization in sustaining the AASR, a factor that has been significantly overlooked in existing academic research.

This book explores the origin and propagation of myths in international relations. The 16 contributions demonstrate how formative historical events are often transformed into handy cliche s which are subsequently drawn on by politicians and journalists who apply these simplistic patterns to current events. Myths discussed include the Spanish Civil War, Yalta, British difference, and the German Sonderweg. The book focuses on the relationship of these myths to current policy-making. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Written in tribute to the work of Professor Alan Dobson, this collection of essays brings diplomacy and the Anglo-American relationship together, considering politics and foreign policy in tandem with cultural interactions. Uniquely placed to define exactly what transatlanticism is, and to explore the ways in which this idea has evolved in the last 150 years, this book asks to what extent can it be argued that there was a transatlantic world, how can it be defined and what was unique about it? With contributions from leading scholars it offers an overview of the field as well as a comparative exploration of Anglo-American relations. From emotion in foreign policy decision making, to the RAF in the Vietnam War, as well as leader personalities and transatlantic reactions to women's rights in China, Transatlanticism and Transnationalism since the First World War explores this 'special relationship' at many levels and from many angles. It further asks how this relationship has evolved over the years, and considers how it might survive in a globalized, post-industrial world.

Nuclear alliances are high stakes partnerships with the potential to enhance security, goodwill, scientific and technical innovation, and economic well-being; or, they risk a state's very existence, generate social and political unrest, and fracture frameworks for international cooperation and jeopardize global reputations. Now entering its eighth decade, the Anglo-American nuclear alliance is the oldest and most complex in the world. Sharing Nuclear Secrets is the first comprehensive single-volume study of the Anglo-American nuclear relationship, illuminating both its fragility and durability. It has waxed and waned based on the preferences of presidents and prime ministers, weathered war scares, overcome isolationist impulses and imperial decline, persisted despite public antipathy, and has survived and been strengthened by scientific rivalries. Trust and ambiguity are entangled at the core of the Anglo-American nuclear relationship. The interplay between trust and ambiguity has influenced the way the nuclear partnership has been institutionalized at bureaucratic and technical levels, but also the ways in which political actors and private citizens have maintained the relationship through periods of crisis, moments of triumph, and through decades of cultural reckoning with nuclear weapons. From the days of the Manhattan Project, through the crisis of Suez and criticism of Dr. Strangelove, to the end of the Cold War, and into present day circumstances brought about by the JCPOA, AUKUS, and Russian nuclear threats over Ukraine, Sharing Nuclear Secrets reveals that ambiguity is key to keeping the balance between sentiment and interests and the corresponding equilibrium between trust and mistrust in the special relationship.

Andrew Mumford challenges the notion of a “special relationship” between the United States and United Kingdom in diplomatic and military affairs, the most vaunted and, he says, exaggerated of associations in the post-1945 era. Though they are allies to be sure, national self-interest and domestic politics have often undercut their relationship. This is the first book to combine a history of US-UK interaction during major counterinsurgency campaigns since 1945, from Palestine to Iraq and Afghanistan, with a critical examination of the so called special relationship that has been tested during these difficult, protracted, and costly conflicts. Mumford’s assessment of each nation’s internal political discussions and diplomatic exchanges reveals that in actuality there is only a thin layer of specialness at work in the wars that shaped the postcolonial balance of power, the fight against Communism in the Cold War, and the twenty-first-century “war on terror.” This book is especially timely given that the US-UK relationship is once again under scrutiny because of the Trump administration’s “America First” rhetoric and Britain's changing international relations as a result of Brexit. Counterinsurgency Wars and the Anglo-American Alliance will interest scholars and students of history, international relations, and security studies as well as policy practitioners in the field.

The Anglo-American Military Relationship explores military cooperation since the end of the Cold War. Much of the literature on the Anglo-American 'Special Relationship' has focused on the personal linkages between American Presidents and British Prime Ministers. This book argues that much of what is special between the two countries has resided in their military cooperation. This has provided the ballast that has underpinned other aspects of the political and economic relationship and given it durability. The book focuses on how the British armed services have worked alongside a superpower, in both peacetime and conflict. This military cooperation has been a challenging task, not least because it has occurred within a dynamic strategic context in which the nature of conflict has been evolving. British armed forces have engaged with their American allies in high intensity warfare, as well as in developing military doctrines to address insurgency, peace enforcement, and nation-building tasks. Working so closely with the US military has generated risks as well as benefits for Britain's armed forces. It has led them to engage in tasks that have weighed heavily upon their resources and has resulted in numerous tensions between the two sides.