US-UK Relations: The Current Situation and Prospects for the Future.

This paper will begin with an assessment of the current state of the US-UK ‘special relationship’. It will argue that the ‘special’ nature of the relationship exists in the realms of institutionalised defence co-operation and intelligence sharing. The paper will review other accounts of the ‘specialness’ of the relationship, including cultural arguments. The paper will argue that ‘special’ relations were receding in the 1990s, following the end of the Cold War and the sharpening of the European integration agenda. The relationship was renewed, so the paper will argue, as a result of the commitment of Prime Minister Tony Blair both to the relationship itself, and to the doctrine of liberal internationalism/interventionism.The second part of the paper will look forward to US-UK relations in the post-Blair and post-Bush eras. Developments in Conservative Party thinking on the ‘special relationship’ will be reviewed, along with prospects for US-UK relations under Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The relationship will also be examined in connection with the likely trajectory of US foreign policy in the next ten or so years. The conclusion will be that ‘specialness’ in the relationship is likely to decline in line with the expectations that attended the close of the Cold War in the early 1990s. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]