A country's diplomacy is inseparable from its historical traditions and its political life at home and abroad. But in the final analysis, it is determined by its national interests, an extension of its internal affairs in international relations. Each country's diplomacy and foreign relations are influenced by various factors and have their own characteristics. After the Second World War, although Britain was a victorious power, its strength has gradually weakened, and Britain has undoubtedly become a "middle power".
After the end of world war II, Britain's field of activity on the international stage was much smaller than in the nineteenth century. However, there are still unique aspects of its foreign policy, and the Anglo-American "special relationship" is an important part of Britain's post-war diplomacy. The "special relationship" between Britain and the United States is a very important link in Britain's "three-ring diplomacy". Among them, "three-ring diplomacy" refers to the diplomatic principles proposed by Britain in order to restore its strength, including special ties with Britain in the three links with the United States, the British Commonwealth, and the united Europe, while Britain acts as an intermediary between these three rings to maintain its status as a great power.
The special relationship between Britain and the United States was an alliance formed between Britain and the United States during the Second World War in order to jointly deal with fascist forces, and gradually evolved into a "special relationship" between Britain and the United States after the war. Judging from the general trend of post-war exchanges between Britain and the United States, the word "special" can be interpreted as "intimacy, cooperation, exchange, mutual learning" and other meanings.
In March 1946, Churchill, accompanied by U.S. President Harry Truman, delivered an Iron Curtain speech entitled "Pillar of Peace" in the small American town of Fulton, mainly in response to the infiltration of Soviet socialism, formally proposing the concept of "Anglo-American Special Relations". Although the United States finally joined the war as a Member of the Entente and formed a wartime alliance with Britain as early as World War I, the alliance was not stable during this period due to the traditional isolation foreign policy of the two countries.
In the First World War, although Britain was a victorious power, but the price was a decline in strength, Britain's finances and navy were seriously damaged, after World War I, Britain has lost its former glory, from the world's largest creditor country to a debtor country after World War I, owing the United States more than 4 billion US dollars; the second year after the end of the war, Britain had its first economic crisis. On the contrary, the United States became the richest and most powerful country in the capitalist countries, and almost all European countries had debts to him.
In the Second World War, under the inaction of the appeasement policy of Britain, France and other countries, the German fascists took the lead in launching a great war, and in order to jointly resist the aggression of the fascist forces, Britain and the United States once again moved towards unity. After the war, Britain was also a victorious power, but it was still a severely weakened empire. With the rise of the United States and the Soviet Union as a world superpower after the war, "the bipolar world pattern eventually replaced the multi-level international system under british domination in the past."
Faced with the rise of the Soviet Union and the socialist movement, Britain, ceded in various crises, could not cede hegemony to the United States for survival reasons. "Britain gradually followed the United States in an attempt to use its power to restore Britain's dominance in the European world and to maintain Its great power status.
In general, Britain is behind the United States in the special relationship between Britain and the United States, which can be described by the term "fox and tiger power", and the formation of this state is determined by the disparity in power between the two countries. After the war, the United States and the Soviet Union were the two superpowers in the world, and the Soviet Union undoubtedly belonged to the socialist camp and was incompatible with the British capitalist tradition, so Britain could only maintain its right to speak in Europe by relying on the strong strength of the United States, acting as an intermediary between Europe and the United States, and even the United States and the Soviet Union.
So what are the reasons for the formation of a "special relationship" between Britain and the United States, and where is the "special" manifested? Stay tuned for the next article.
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