Special

Many relationships in international affairs are singular, but the United Kingdom’s relationship with the United States has always been different. Though it can no longer be claimed that the relationship is central to international relations, McDonald asks if recent events represent a temporary cooling or a rift that will only grow wider.

For a time, what Churchill dubbed the ‘special’ relationship had consequences far beyond the borders of the two countries – a closeness that has provoked envy, curiosity, and bewilderment.

In this new volume, Simon McDonald takes stock of the special relationship and speculates about its future. Starting with its sixteenth-century origins, he takes a longer look at the twentieth century and the relationship today, before looking forward at how, and if, it may develop in the coming centuries. Just how important are ties in defence, intelligence, language, and culture? What can we make of the United States’ ambivalent relationship with the Royal Family? Has the US ever acted benevolently towards the UK, or has it always taken decisions in its own interest?

Today the relationship is weaker than Churchill, Thatcher, or even Blair understood it; much that made it special belongs to a rapidly receding past. Though it can no longer be claimed that the relationship is central to international relations, McDonald asks if recent events represent a temporary cooling of what remains a vital relationship to the UK and an important one to the US; or a rift that will only grow wider.

Simon McDonald was the British ambassador to Germany and later permanent under-secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and head of Diplomatic Service. He sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher and, as of September 2022, is master of Christ’s College, Cambridge. His first book, Leadership: Lessons from a Life in Diplomacy, was shortlisted for the Parliamentary Book Awards 2022. With Haus he also published Beyond Britannia: Reshaping the UK Foreign Policy.