HOMEWORK WEEK 3 - GROUP 1

BRITAIN POLITICAL ALLIES

No. Full name Student ID

1 Đinh Thu Vân TA46C - 092 - 1923

2 Phan Thị Ngọc Trâm TA46C - 091 - 1923

3 Nguyễn Minh Tú TA46C - 087 - 1923

4 Phạm Phương Uyên TA46C - 079 - 1923

I. Introduction
Definition
According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, ALLY is a person or group that provides
assistance and support in an ongoing effort, activity, or struggle. In short, we can understand
the word political ally as a country that has agreed officially to give help and support to
another one, especially during a war.

Since the Act of Union in 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain has fought in over 120 wars
across a total of 170 countries. With over 300 years of conflict to look back upon, we’ve
decided to crunch the numbers and work out who – historically, of course – are Britain’s
traditional friends and foes

The United Kingdom was the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th
centuries, most notably during the so-called "Pax Britannica"—a period of totally unrivaled
supremacy and unprecedented international peace during the mid-to-late 1800s. The country
continued to be widely considered a superpower until the Suez crisis of 1956, and this
embarrassing incident coupled with the loss of the empire left the UK's dominant role in
 global affairs to be gradually diminished. Nevertheless, the United Kingdom remains a great
power and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a founding member
of the G7, G8, G20, NATO, AUKUS, OECD, WTO, Council of Europe, OSCE, and the
Commonwealth of Nations, the latter being a legacy of the British Empire.

The UK had been a member state of the European Union (and a member of its
predecessors) since 1973. However, due to the outcome of a 2016 membership referendum,
proceedings to withdraw from the EU began in 2017 and concluded when the UK formally
left the EU on 31 January 2020, and the transition period on 31 December 2020 with an EU
trade agreement. Since the vote and the conclusion of trade talks with the EU, policymakers
have begun pursuing new trade agreements with other global partners.

As you can see, throughout its History, the UK calls the United States, Canada, Australia,
Italy, Germany, Japan,... as its ally. However, The UK has now left the European Union and
is embarking on a path of making new friends and reviving clashes with old rivals.

In this presentation we will only focus on Germany, the United States and Japan.

II. Germany
As a large export economy with a residual military allergy and a neighbour with regional
‘leadership’ ambitions (i.e., France), Germany benefits from UK policies that support an open
international order, strengthen European security through US involvement and NATO or the
EU, and offer opportunities to balance against European regional powers. One might
reasonably speculate that for Germany an ideally positioned UK would be an active but
principled international actor, without competing head-on with German commercial
specializations, and a team player in the institutions that provide defence and structure
political relations in Europe. In German eyes, the UK had broadly conformed to this profile,
at least up to the Brexit referendum in 2016.

Instrumentalising a transatlantic partner

The German positioning of the UK as an ally is related to the role played by the US in
German security. This association of the British and Americans carried over into the years of
the administration of Donald Trump, in which German trust in the UK as an ‘anchor’ in the
transatlantic relationship began to falter. Indeed, the association in Germany between
‘Brexit’ and ‘Trump’ was perhaps part of what led Merkel to call the trustworthiness of the
UK into doubt. In 2017, a headline in The Guardian said ‘Angela Merkel: EU cannot
completely rely on the US and Britain any more’. While this was not exactly what Merkel
said, she departed sharply from the previous narrative insofar as she divided the UK and US
from ‘we Europeans’, who ‘must really take our fate into our own hands.’ She went on: ‘Of
course in friendship with the United States of America, in friendship with Great Britain, and
as good neighbours wherever it is possible in friendship with other countries, even with
Russia’. Not only is Merkel segregating ‘we Europeans’ from the UK (and denying Britain’s
European identity), but she is also repositioning the UK and the US alongside Russia.

Restraining a ‘new competitor’

On the one hand, the UK is seen in Germany as a potential balancer in terms of French-
German relations (e.g., on neoliberal economic policy), and at the same time a
complementary partner on aspects of German policy where the UK and large parts of
Germany’s establishment are in broad agreement, like on the importance of the transatlantic
alliance. On the other hand, referring to Brexit, Merkel warned that ‘Now we will have a new
competitor at our door in the form of Great Britain.’

Merkel’s positioning of the UK as a competitor was not an off-the-cuff remark. Earlier that
year, speaking to reporters after a meeting at the Elysée Palace in October 2019, she outlined
a wide range of areas where Berlin and Paris would aim to cooperate more closely, adding
that ‘We will do all this in the knowledge that with the departure of Great Britain, a potential
competitor will of course emerge for us.’ She went on: ‘That is to say, in addition to China
and the United States of America, there will be Great Britain as well.’
As the implications of a ‘hard’ Brexit became more clear, the narrative of the UK as an
economic or even systemic competitor appeared in the wider continental European discourse.

Reinforcing trust in ‘Europe’

In German eyes, Britain’s reputation has suffered since 2016. As Sir Paul Lever, a former
British Ambassador to Germany and a close observer of German politics, has noted: ‘the
German media’s reporting on the UK has become increasingly uncompromising’. He goes
on: ‘the picture presented is of a country to be pitied, one whose leadership is incompetent
and corrupt, whose democratic institutions are crumbling, whose economy is on the point of
collapse and whose population has been manipulated into voting for extremists.’
 Part of this may be related to reinforcing Germany’s post-Second World War identity. By
positioning Brexiting Britain in such morally negative terms, Germans may be trying to shore
up the EU as a saviour of their country due to the shame and humiliation of the Nazi period.

Positioning is motivated by an obscure mix of unconscious and conscious motivations, which

makes divining strategic intent a somewhat speculative exercise. However, one might look
for example at the German emphasis on trustworthiness and wonder what sort of response it
might elicit from the UK. Nobody likes to be seen as untrustworthy, so it would be
understandable if this was taken as a provocation, prompting the UK (again, consciously or
otherwise) to react with soothing gestures of reassurance, such as commitment to formal
agreements on regulations or foreign and security policy cooperation with the EU or with
Germany itself. Perhaps by coincidence, these would be desirable outcomes from a German
point of view, and open opportunities for a fresh round of instrumentalising moves.

So in summary, just as the EU policy towards the People’s Republic of China is expressed in
terms of a trinity (cooperation partner, economic competitor, systemic rival), German
positioning of the UK has three dimensions, reflecting each form of positioning move:
instrumentalising a transatlantic ally, restraining an economic ‘rival’ and reinforcing the
German vision of a Europe built on trust.

III. The USA

1. Overview
Relations between the United Kingdom and the United States have ranged from two early
wars to competition for world markets. Since 1940 the countries have been close military
allies enjoying the Special Relationship built as wartime allies and NATO partners. They are
bound together by shared history, an overlap in religion, common language, legal system and
kinship ties that reach back hundreds of years, including kindred, ancestral lines among
English Americans, Scottish Americans, Welsh Americans, Cornish Americans, Scotch-Irish
Americans, Irish Americans, and American Britons. Today, large numbers of expatriates live
in both countries.
In the early 21st century, Britain affirmed its relationship with the United States as its "most
important bilateral partnership" in the current British foreign policy, and the American
foreign policy also affirms its relationship with Britain as its most important relationship, as
evidenced in aligned political affairs, mutual cooperation in the areas of trade, commerce,
finance, technology, academics, as well as the arts and sciences; the sharing of government
and military intelligence, and joint combat operations and peacekeeping missions carried out
between the United States Armed Forces and the British Armed Forces. In the long-term
perspective, the historian Paul Johnson has called the United Kingdom–United States
relations "cornerstone of the modern, democratic world order".
The two countries also have had a significant impact on the cultures of many other countries.
They are the two main nodes of the Anglosphere, with a combined population of just under
400 million in 2019. Together, they have given the English language a dominant role in many
sectors of the modern world.

2. “Special Relationship”
The Special Relationship is a term that is often used to describe the political, social,
diplomatic, cultural, economic, legal, environmental, religious, military and historic relations
between the United Kingdom and the United States or its political leaders. The term first
came into popular usage after it was used in a 1946 speech by former British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill. Both nations have been close allies during many conflicts in the 20th and
the 21st centuries, including World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, the
Gulf War and the War on Terror.

● History overview
The first, short-lived British colony in Virginia was organized in 1584, and permanent
English settlement began in 1607. The United States declared its independence from Great
Britain in 1776. The American Revolutionary War ended in 1783, with Great Britain
recognizing U.S. independence. The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1785.
The United States broke relations when it declared war on the United Kingdom during the
War of 1812; relations were reestablished in 1815.
The United States and the United Kingdom fought each other in the American Revolution
and again in the War of 1812. During the Civil War, the British were thought to have
sympathies for the South, but this did not lead to a military conflict. In World War I, the U.S.
and the U.K. fought together, and in World War II the United States entered the European
portion of the conflict to defend the United Kingdom and other European allies. The two
countries were also strong allies during the Cold War and the first Gulf War. The United
Kingdom was the only top world power to support the United States in the Iraq War. (later
properly presented by Vân)
The United States has no closer ally than the United Kingdom, and British foreign policy
emphasizes close coordination with the United States. Bilateral cooperation reflects the
common language, ideals, and democratic practices of the two nations. Relations were
strengthened by the United Kingdom’s alliance with the United States during both World
Wars, in the Korean conflict, in the Persian Gulf War, in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and in
Afghanistan, as well as through its role as a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO). The United Kingdom and the United States continually consult on
foreign policy issues and global problems and share major foreign and security policy
objectives.
Regarding Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, “Nationalist” and
“Republican” groups seek a united Ireland that includes Northern Ireland, while “Unionists”
and “Loyalists” want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. U.S. priorities
continue to be supporting the peace process and devolved political institutions in Northern
Ireland and encouraging the implementation of the U.S.-brokered 1998 Belfast Agreement,
also known as the Good Friday Agreement, and the 2006 St. Andrews Agreement.

● World War I
World War I erupted in August 1914, the result of long-standing European imperial
grievances and arms races. The United States sought neutrality in the war, having just
experienced its own brush with imperialism that included the Spanish-American War in
1898, (of which Great Britain approved), and the disastrous Filipino Insurrection that soured
Americans on further foreign entanglements.
Nevertheless, the United States expected neutral trade rights; that is, it wanted to trade with
belligerents on both sides of the war, including Great Britain and Germany.
Both of those countries opposed the American policy, but while Great Britain would stop and
board U.S. ships suspected of carrying goods to Germany, German submarines took the more
dire action of sinking American merchant ships.
After 128 Americans died when a German U-Boat sank the British luxury liner Lusitania
(surreptitiously hauling weapons in its hold) U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and his
Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan successfully got Germany to agree to a policy of
"restricted" submarine warfare.
Incredibly, that meant a sub had to signal a targeted ship that it was about to torpedo it so that
personnel could debark the vessel.
In early 1917, however, Germany announced restricted sub warfare and returned to
"unrestricted" sub warfare. By now, American merchants were showing an unabashed bias
toward Great Britain, and the British rightly feared renewed German sub attacks would
cripple their trans-Atlantic supply lines.
Great Britain actively courted the United States—with its manpower and industrial might—to
enter the war as an ally. When British intelligence intercepted a telegram from Germany's
Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman to Mexico encouraging Mexico to ally with Germany
and create a diversionary war on America's southwestern border, they quickly notified the
Americans.
The Zimmerman Telegram was genuine, although at first glance it seems like something
British propagandists might fabricate to get the U.S. into the war. The telegram, combined
with Germany's unrestricted sub warfare, was the tipping point for the United States. It
declared war on Germany in April 1917.
The U.S. enacted a Selective Service Act, and by Spring 1918 had enough soldiers in France
to help England and France turn back a massive German offensive. In Fall 1918, under the
command of General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing, American troops flanked the German
lines while British and French troops held the German front in place. The Meuse-Argonne
Offensive forced Germany to surrender.

● World War II
When England and France declared war on Germany after its invasion of Poland on
September 1, 1939, the United States again tried to remain neutral. When Germany defeated
France, then attacked England in the summer of 1940, the resulting Battle of Britain shook
the United States out of its isolationism.
The United States began a military draft and started building new military equipment. It also
began arming merchant ships to carry goods through the hostile North Atlantic to England (a
practice it had abandoned with the policy of Cash and Carry in 1937); traded World War I-era
naval destroyers to England in exchange for naval bases, and began the Lend-Lease program.
Through Lend-Lease the United States became what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called
the "arsenal of democracy," making and supplying material of war to Great Britain and others
fighting Axis powers.
During World War II, Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill held several
personal conferences. They met first off the coast of Newfoundland aboard a navy destroyer
in August 1941. There they issued the Atlantic Charter, an agreement in which they outlined
the goals of the war.
Of course, the U.S. was not officially in the war, but tacitly FDR pledged to do all he could
for England short of formal war. When the U.S. officially joined the war after Japan attacked
its Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Churchill went to Washington where
he spent the holiday season. He talked strategy with FDR in the Arcadia Conference, and he
addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress—a rare event for a foreign diplomat.
During the war, FDR and Churchill met at the Casablanca Conference in North Africa in
early 1943 where they announced the Allied policy of "unconditional surrender" of Axis
forces.
In 1944 they met at Tehran, Iran, with Josef Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union. There they
discussed war strategy and the opening of a second military front in France. In January 1945,
with the war winding down, they met at Yalta on the Black Sea where, again with Stalin, they
talked about post-war policies and the creation of the United Nations.
During the war, the U.S. and Great Britain cooperated in the invasions of North Africa,
Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany, and several islands and naval campaigns in the Pacific.
At the war's end, as per an agreement at Yalta, the United States and Britain split the
occupation of Germany with France and the Soviet Union. Throughout the war, Great Britain
acknowledged that the United States had surpassed it as the world's top power by accepting a
command hierarchy that put Americans in supreme command positions in all major theaters
of the war.

● Trump Administration 2017 - 2021

President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May aimed to continue the
United Kingdom–United States special relationship. May was the first foreign leader Trump
hosted in Washington after taking office and UKIP leader Nigel Farage was the first foreign
politician Trump met with after winning the presidential election, when he was still
President-elect. However, Trump was the subject of popular protests in Britain even before
he took office, particularly because of his anti-immigration proposals, misogyny and racism.
[189] During his presidency there were protests when he was inaugurated, when he
announced his first immigration ban on citizens from certain Muslim countries,and when he
said he would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
On June 4, 2017, Trump responded to a terror attack on London Bridge by attacking London
Mayor Sadiq Khan for saying that there "was no reason to be alarmed". The comments were
condemned by Khan who stated that his remarks were deliberately taken out of context in
that he was referring to an increased police presence in the days after the attack, which should
not alarm the public. Trump also suggested that, "we must stop being politically correct and
get down to the business of security for our people".

On November 29, 2017, Trump retweeted three videos posted by Jayda Fransen, deputy
leader of the far-right nationalist Britain First party. One of the videos, titled 'Muslim
immigrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches', was subsequently discredited by the Dutch
embassy in the United States. The spokesperson for the Prime Minister said that what the
President had done was 'wrong' and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that 'hate speech
had no place in the UK'. In response, Trump tweeted at the Prime Minister suggesting that
she worry about immigration in her own country rather than whom he chose to retweet.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said that the President attempted to start a
conversation about immigration.

May was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after his inauguration, and she invited him to
make a return visit. More than 1.8 million U.K. citizens signed a petition to rescind the
invitation, and Parliament debated a nonbinding resolution to that effect in February 2017.
The visit was tentatively planned for late February 2018, and would include a ceremonial
opening of the new American embassy in Nine Elms. However, on January 11, 2018, he
canceled the visit and denounced the new embassy in a tweet saying:

Donald J. Trump Twitter

@realDonaldTrump
Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama
Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for
"peanuts," only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal.
Wanted me to cut the ribbon-NO!

January 11, 2018[200]

This was despite the official reason for relocating the embassy due to the security, as the
Grosvenor Square site couldn't accommodate the requirements for being 100 ft (30.5 m)
away from the street, and the fact that the move was decided by Obama's predecessor Bush,
who approved the relocation in 2008. It was speculated that the real reason for canceling the
visit was due to Trump's unpopularity and the possibility of large protests against him in
London.

Trump made a second visit in June 2019, this time as guests of the Queen and to hold talks
with May. Thousands protested his visit, just like they did when he made his first trip.

On July 7, 2019, secret diplomatic cables from Ambassador Kim Darroch to the British
government, dating from 2017 to 2019, were leaked to The Mail on Sunday. They included
Darroch's unflattering assessments of the Trump administration, e.g. that it was "inept and
insecure".[207] In response, Nigel Farage said Darroch was "totally unsuitable" for office,
[208] and Trump tweeted that Darroch was "not liked or well thought of within the US" and
that "we will no longer deal with him". The Prime Minister, Theresa May, expressed support
for Darroch and ordered a leak inquiry. On July 10, Darroch resigned as Ambassador to the
United States. He wrote that "the current situation is making it impossible for me to carry out
my role as I would like". Previously, Boris Johnson, the frontrunner in the election to replace
May, had declined to publicly back Darroch. Consensus among political commentators in the
UK was that this made Darroch's position untenable. May and the leader of the opposition,
Jeremy Corbyn, praised Darroch's service in the House of Commons and deplored that he had
to resign under pressure from the U.S.

● Biden Administration 2021 - Present

Biden's first overseas trip and first face-to-face meeting with a British Prime Minister was at
the 2021 G7 Summit, hosted in Cornwall, England in June. Johnson stated "there's so much
that [the US] want to do together" with us. The first meeting between the two leaders
included plans to re-establish travel links between the US and UK, which had been banned by
the US since the start of the pandemic and to agree a deal (the New Atlantic Charter), which
commits the countries to working together on "the key challenges of this century - cyber
security, emerging technologies, global health and climate change". President Biden
explicitly "affirmed the special relationship". The revitalized Atlantic Charter would build
"on the commitments and aspirations set out eighty years ago" and also "reaffirm" the
"commitment to work together to realize our vision for a more peaceful and prosperous
future."
The chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and fall of Kabul in August 2021 had a negative
impact on United Kingdom–United States relations, with the British government briefing the
media against the American government.

https://www.geostrategy.org.uk/research/how-allies-position-the-united-kingdom/