Reassessing the special relationship

International Affairs

Volumn 85, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 263-284

  Wallace, William ^a   Phillips, Christopher ^a  

^a LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 62349127531     PISSN: 00205850     EISSN: 14682346     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2346.2009.00793.x     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. Gordon Brown, speech to the Lord Mayor's Banquet, London, 10 Nov. 2008.
2. Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street years (London : HarperCollins, 1993), p. 784.
3. Sir John Colville, in conversation with David Dimbleby, quoted in David Dimbleby and David Reynolds, An ocean apart: the relationship between Britain ana America in the 20th century (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1988), p. 125.
4. Winston S. Churchill, 'The sinews of peace', speech to Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, 5 March. 1946, quoted in Robert Rhodes James, Winston S. Churchill: his complete speeches 1897-1963, vol. VII, 1943-1949 (New York and London: Chelsea House Publishers, 1974), pp. 7285-93.
5. Speech at West Point, Dec. 1962, quoted in Peter Riddell, Hug them close: Blair, Clinton, Bush and the 'special relationship' (London: Politico's, 2003), p. 41.
6. Edward Heath, Old world, new horizons: Britain, the Common Market and the Atlantic alliance (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1970), pp. 63-6.
7. Riddell, Hug them close, p. 52.
8. Lord Renwick, quoted in Jeffery D. McCausland and Douglas T. Stuart, eds, US-UK relations at the start of the 21st century (Carlisle, PA: US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, 2006), p. 3.
9. The Strategic Defence Review: a New Chapter, Cm. 5566 (London : SO, July 2002), p. 5.
10. Delivering security in a changing world: defence whitepaper, Cm. 6041-1 (London: SO, Dec. 2003), p. 8.
11. The defence plan: including the government's expenditure plans, 2008-12, Cm. 7385 (London: SO, June 2008), p. 11.
12. Michael Codner, The hard choices: twenty questions for British defence policy and national military strategy (London: Royal United Services Institute, 2008), p. 1.
13. See, e.g., Rachel Sylvester, 'Memo: don't rely on the Brits during a battle', The Times, 6 Jan. 2009.
14. The UK's National Security Strategy, however, cautions that the UK already has 'the second-highest defence budget in the world in cash terms, and the fifth-highest in purchasing power terms (after the United States, China, India and Russia). In the last year we will have spent up to £2.9 billion in addition to the defence budget in Iraq and Afghanistan . . . But the primary factor is the rising cost of equipment'. Cabinet Office, The National Security Strategy of the United Kingdom: security in an interdependent world, Cm. 7291 (London : SO, March 2008), p. 46.
15. Leo Michel, 'Observations on the special relationship in security and defence matters', in McCausland and Stuart, US-UK relations, p. 157.
16. Interview. While preparing this article, the authors conducted, a number of background, interviews with British personnel, currently or recently involved in managing UK-US relations.
17. The future strategic context for defence: defence whitepaper, Cm. 30, Feb. 2001, p. 8.
18. Ministry of Defence, The future of the UK's strategic nuclear deterrent: the strategic context, HC-986, 2005-6, June 2006, para. 29.
19. Michael Clarke, 'Does my bomb look big in this?', International Affairs 80: 1, Jan. 2004, pp. 49-62.
20. Financial Times, 19 Dec. 2008. The Ministry of Defence, in The future of the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent (Cm. 6994, Dec. 2006, para. 7-3), admits that 'certain non-nuclear components of the warhead' are manufactured in the United States.
21. Ministry of Defence, Tht future of the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent, para. 1-8.
22. Ministry of Defence, The future of the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent, paras 4-8, 4-8. Operational independence means freedom to deploy, or to threaten to use its nuclear weapons in a crisis ; dependence on American consent for regular maintenance of missiles and for longer-term provision of technical assistance and expertise is accepted.
23. John Baylis, Ambiguity and deterrence: British nuclear strategy 1945-1064 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), p. 369.
24. Exchange of letters "between MoD and US Department of the Air Force, 25 June and 19 July T97Ó (UK Public Record Office). The letter of 25 June, from Miss B. E. Lee of the MoD, adds, with reference to RAF Menwith Hill, 'Incidentally I cannot find any copy of a lease between the US Army and War Office and conclude that the occupation rests on correspondence.'
25. John Baylis, Anglo-American defence relations 1939-1980 (London: Macmillan, 1981), p. 35. "Even then,' he adds, 'these "Attlee- Churchill Understandings", as they became known, were rather vague and open-ended/ The Foreign Secretary, Ernest Be vin, noted that 'there had never been a decision taken by the Cabinet regarding the permanent location of American bombers in this country; neither bad we ever reported the question to Parliament'.
26. Quoted in Dimhlchy and Reynolds, An ocean apart, p. 186.
27. See, e.g., Bob Ainsworth MP, Minister of State, Defence, Hansard (Commons), 15 Jan. 2008, col. 1137. The Air Minister, in a letter of 9 September 1953 to the US ambassador about these 'arrangements which bave been agreed upon', confirms "that Her Majesty's Government see no need for the terms of the understanding to be embodied in a formal agreement'.
28. David Gee, US military and intelligence bases in Britain; a briefing (London : Quaker Peace and Social Witness, June 2004), p. 3, estimates US forces personnel at 16, 500.
29. Baroness Crawley, Hansard (Lords), Hansard debates, 10 Jan. 2008, col. 986 and Sean Simmons, 'Getting personal : RAF Lakenheath's new, singular Brit', Stars ana Stripes, 3 Oct. 2007.
30. European Parliament, "Report on the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system.)', 2001/2098(INI), 11 July 2001.
31. In January 2003 Baroness Amos assured the House of Lords that 'The United States Government would, need to ask for our permission to bring any suspects to Diego Garcia. They have not done so and no suspects are being held on Diego Garcia.' Hansard (Lords), 8 Jan.. 2003, col. 1020. In February 2008 David Miliband, as Foreign Secretary, stated that US authorities had now informed him that two rendition flights had passed through the base. See Mark Tran, 'Miliband admits US rendition flights stopped on British soil', Guardian, 21 Feb. 2008. On 1 August 2008 Time magazine published details of prisoners In the 'extraordinary rendition' programme who had been held in Diego Garcia.
32. Gee, US military and intelligence bases in Britain, p. 27 and Sunday Times, 25 Jan. 1976.
33. See also David Vine, Island of shame: the secret history of the US military hose on Diego Garcia (Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, forthcoming 2009).
34. James Bamford, Body of secrets: how America's NSA and Britain's GCHQ eavesdrop on the world (London: Arrow, 2002), pp. 40, 422.
35. European Parliament, "Report on the existence of a global, system'.
36. Richard J. Aldrich, 'Transatlantic intelligence and security cooperation', International Affairs 80: 4, July 2004, pp. 731-5
37. and Bamford, Body of secrets, p. 401.
38. Bamford, Body of secrets, p. 400.
39. Steve Marsh and. John Baylis, 'The Anglo-American "special relationship" : the Lazarus of international polities', Diplomacy and Statecraft 1.7:1, April 2006, pp. 173-211.
40. David Reynolds, 'A "special relationship"? America, Britain and the international order since the Second World War', International Affairs 62: 1, Winter 1985-6, pp.1-20.
41. Aldrich, 'Transatlantic intelligence', p. 738.
42. Ahmed Rashid, Descent into chaos: how the war against Islamic extremism is being lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia (London : Allen. Lane, 2008), p. 132.
43. Riddell, Hug them close, p. 55.
44. Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, Rendition, July 2007, Conclusions and Recommendations H, p.29.
45. John O'Sullivan, 'How "special"? For how long? Between Washington and London', National Review, 5 Feb. 2001.
46. Arm Widdecombe, Hansard (Commons), 22 June 2000, col. 479.
47. Robin Cook, Point of departure (London : Simon & Schuster, 2003), p. 116.
48. Marsh and Baylis, 'The Anglo-American "special relationship"', p. 178.
49. Anthony Seldon, Blair (London : Free Press, 2005), pp. 396, 399-400.
50. Andrew Rawnsley, Servants of the people: the inside story ofNeiv Labour (London : Penguin, 2001), p. 274.
51. Riddell, Hug them close, p. 114.
52. Riddell, Hug them close, pp. 2, 131.
53. Peter Stothard, 30 days: a month at the heart of 'Blair's war (London : HarperCollins, 2003), p. 21.
54. Blair's comment to a friend, in Seldon, Blair, p. 573.
55. Seldon, Blair, p. 493.
56. Bob Woodward, Plan of attach (London: Pocket Books, 2004), pp. 25-6.
57. The Times, 8 Nov. 2001.
58. Rashid, Descent into chaos, p. 66
59. and Riddell, Hug them close, p. 156.
60. Anthony Seldon, Blair unbound (London: Pocket Books, 2008), p. 393.
61. Cook, Point of departure, p. 205.
62. Seldon, Blair, p. 578.
63. Woodward, Plan of attack, pp. 296-7.
64. Interview in Seldon, Blair, p. 578.
65. Stothard, 30 days, p. 226.
66. Clare Short, An honourable deception? New Labour, Iraq and the misuse of'power (London: Free Press, 2004), p. 209.
67. Seldon, Blair unbound, p. 233.
68. Lawrence D. Freedman, 'The special relationship: then and now', Foreign Affairs 85: 3, May /June 2006, pp. 61-73.
69. Seldon, Blair unbound, pp. 262, 520-4.
70. Riddell, Hug them close, p. 238.
71. Interview with Colin Powell, 1 Feb. 2007, in. Seldon, Blair unbound, p. 180 and interview with. John Bolton, 3 Dec. 2003,
72. in Seldon, Blair, p. 620.
73. Seldon, Blair unbound, pp. 317-19, 466.
74. Interview with Sir Christopher Meyer, 2 June 2003, in Seldon, Blair, p. 375.
75. Interview with Sir Christopher Meyer, 18 March 2003, in Riddell, Hug them close, pp. 86-7.
76. Guardian, 12 Jan. 2005.
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78. Seldon, Blair unbound, p. 368.
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86. Hansard (Commons), 2 July 2002, col. 276.
87. Hansard (Commons), 19 March 2008, col. 604W.
88. Hansard (Commons), 26 Feb. 2007, col. 602.
89. Hansard (Commons), 6 Dec. 2004, col. 341.
90. Parliamentary Under-Secretary Lord Bach., Hansard (Lords), 22 June 2004, col. 1119 and Geoff Hoon, Hansard (Commons), 19 Jan. 2006, col. 953.
91. Geoff Hoon stated that the amendment to the 1958 mutual defence agreement was laid before parliament for 21 days under the Ponsonby rule. Hansard (Commons), 6 Dec. 2004, col. 341.
92. Hansard (Commons), 21 April 2008, col. 1663.
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94. Hansard (Commons), 21 June 2004, col. 1078.
95. Marsh, and Baylis, 'The Anglo-American "special, relationship'", pp. 173-211.
96. Timothy Garton Ash, Free world: why a crisis of the West reveals the opportunity of our time (London: Allen Lane, 2004), pp. 36, 41.
97. Barack Obama, The audacity of hope: thoughts on reclaiming the American dream (New York: Crown, 2006), p. 309.
98. Interviews.
99. Quoted in Riddell, Hug them close, p. 43.
100. Mitchell G. Bond and Daniel Pipes, 'How special is the US-Israel relationship?', Middle East Quarterly 4:2, June 1.997, http://www.meforum.org/article/349, accessed 2 Feb. 2009.
101. Jeffery D. McCausland, Douglas T. Stuart, William T. Tow and Michael Wesley, eds, The omer special relationship: the US and Australia at the start of the 21st century (Carlisle, PA: US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, 2007).
102. Albert R. Hunt, 'Letter from Washington', International Herald Tribune, 8 Dec. 2008.
103. National Intelligence Council, 'Global trends 2025: a transformed world', 4th unclassified report, http:// www.dni.gov/nic/NIC-2025-project.html, accessed 1 Feb. 2009.
104. On February 4th 2009 the High Court in London (Case no.: CO/4241/2008) disclosed that the Foreign Secretary had provided a Public Interest Immunity Certificate, in August 2008, in response to a request for documents related to a British resident interned in Guantanamo, which stated (p.3) that 'disclosure would seriously harm the existing intelligence arrangements between the United Kingdom and the United States.' Press reports differed on whether this followed a threat from Washington to reduce intelligence cooperation, or a request from London to provide support for a British refusal to disclose sensitive information about the treatment of an internee.