PIED3158 British Foreign Policy

BRITAIN-US RELATIONSHIP: CRITICAL POLICY BRIEF Student's Name Course Professor's Name University City (State) Date “Britain-US Relationship: Critical Policy Brief” Executive summary The relationship between America and the UK traces a centuries-long history based on their universal ideologies nurturing democratic rules, respect for human rights, and liberalism. This policy brief has shown various aspects of this relationship spanning the domains of defence, politics, and economics. This document explains how Britain and America cooperated during the Cold War to support the political narrative based on the ideals of liberalism and democracy, and this cooperation is still ongoing, as indicated by both countries' responses to the Ukraine war. On the political level, Britain’s overwhelming and unconditional support of the US War on Terror manifests its long-lasting political affiliation based on mutual interest. Likewise, in economics, the great magnitude of the trade volume between the two countries indicates their reliance on each other’s productivity and labour. However, this report identifies a political conflict between the two countries' bilateral ties. This issue is linked to the implementing of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. However, using political will and awareness of more extended political and economic benefits may compel these countries to resolve this issue as per the given recommendations. In this way, one can anticipate the continuation of mutual ties between the two countries. Introduction In terms of prolonged relationships, Britain and the United States have remained intrinsically linked with each other for centuries. This history of friendly alliance began with the end of the American Revolution in 1783 when the United Kingdom officially acknowledged America as an independent state; ultimately, the two countries established an official diplomatic relationship in 1785 (U.S. DOS 2022). Since then, America and Britain have maintained cordial bilateral ties, which are based on common democratic and liberal values, and these ties span the domains of political, security, and economic issues. Britain’s relationship with the U.S. is fundamentally based on the precept of racial commonality between the two countries' elites, as both share the common Anglo-Saxon brotherhood (Vucetic 2011, p.404; Aguilera 2006, p149). The following policy brief provides glimpses of this historical relationship by exploring various domains of cooperation between the two countries, including defence, regional and international politics, and economics. Moreover, this brief will highlight a recent policy conflict between the two states over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and provide recommendations for its resolution. Britain-US Relationship in the Domain of Defense As American President Joe Biden recently acknowledged the significance of the Britain-US relationship based on both countries’ shared commitment toward the protection of democratic ideals, human rights, and the rule of law across the globe, the positivity between both countries’ relationship is attributed to sharing of these core values (U.S. Department of State 2023; Marginson 2004, p.2010). Even though Britain-US relationships span centuries, geopolitical events and wars have consolidated the defence cooperation between these two states in recent decades. For instance, during the Cold War, the disturbance in the political and social fabric of the Middle East and other parts of the world tested the durability of the Britain-US relationship. In this era, the elements of common interest made both countries develop a joint defence policy against anti-democratic forces spearheaded by the USSR (Calabrese 2001). Throughout the Cold War, the intelligence-sharing mechanism between the two countries remained unshaken due to its deliberately fragmented intelligence cooperation, which made it highly resilient to any disagreement over Cold War policies (Aldrich 1998, p.337). This fragmentation proved useful to intelligence cooperation as it separated domains like economic intelligence and guided missile intelligence cooperation to avoid any detrimental effect of political conflict on intelligence sharing (Aldrich 1998, p.337). More recently, during America’s invasion of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003), the overwhelming military and political support of Britain further reinforced the bilateral defense ties between the two countries (Jones 2012, p.209; Gordon 2003, p.5). For instance, when the United States initiated a comprehensive military campaign to root out the Al-Qaida terrorists and Taliban regime in 2001, the European nations showed overwhelming support for the American war. Britain supported this military action by an overwhelming majority of 68% (Gordon 2003, p.5). The inclusion of British troops in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was another manifestation of Anglo-British military cooperation at the international level. In 2021, the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom signed the Australia, United Kingdom, and United States (AUKUS) security partnership agreement, and this agreement further solidified the military cooperation between the two countries to tackle the threat to their democratic ideals and liberal economic ideology (Shcholokova et al. 2023, p.13). Recently, both countries have improved the exchange of scientists and scientific information in the domain of nuclear research; this exchange is being carried out between national laboratories of the United States and the Atomic Weapon Establishment (AWE) of the United Kingdom (LAN Laboratory 2023). This recent defence collaboration to produce joint nuclear weapons has resulted in the development of the W93: a new nuclear warhead intended to be deployed on submarines (LAN Laboratory 2023). Britain-US Relationship in the Domain of Politics In the domain of international politics, America and Britain have always shared common political interests at regional and international levels. Other than the long history of political cooperation during the Cold War, in the post-Cold War era, Britain has lent great political support to America’s foreign policy against various countries; additionally, both countries have strengthened their political ideologies by supporting each other’s political stance (LMU 2020). This political harmony is based on mutual trust, shared democratic and liberal values, and having a common ancestral and political history. For the same reason, in 2007, President Bush appreciated Britain and America’s political relationship in the following way: “Our two nations hold fundamental values in common……..……. we have built our special relationship on the surest foundations -- our deep and abiding love of liberty.” (National Archives n.d.). The close and historically testing political relationship between America and Britain led Winston Churchill to coin the term “special relationship” to describe the multi-level cooperation between America and the United Kingdom (Wallace and Phillips 2009, P.264). During the tenure of George W. Bush, Britain’s overwhelming political support to America’s war on terror doctrine; for instance, during his tenure as Britain’s prime minister, Tony Blair showed overwhelming enthusiasm to extend Britain’s political and military support during Iraq’s invasion. For this purpose, Tony Blair visited America fifteen times during his tenure. Moreover, both leaders talked more than 130 times on the phone between 2001 and 2007 (National Archives n.d.). During the tenure of Donald Trump as the American President, Britain's prime minister gained strong political support from the Trump Administration over his decision to withdraw from the European Union. However, Joe Biden’s stance over Brexit has not shaken the firm political ties between the two states ...