The relationship between the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) is made special by its virtual removal of the possibility of conflict between the two nations. It lives within an individualistic security system in which these states share collective meanings that provide them mutually understood identities and interests, increasing the possibility of collective action during a time of active threats. Because of this process of socialization, the United States and the United Kingdom have been able to create a unique alliance spanning trade, political foreign affairs, and military cooperation that began as early as the mid 19th C. By contrast, cooperative interactions between the United States and Germany (also currently within a relatively
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At this point, Britain understood the need to welcome the insuppressible American naval expansion as a way to lessen her own international responsibilities. For example, honoring the mandates of the Monroe doctrine meant that the United States would have to share in the responsibility for the actions and conditions of Latin American territories. US naval supremacy in the West was ultimately cemented in the early 20th Century through the building of a US-controlled Isthmian canal in Central America because of its clear strategic advantage in the event of …show more content…
Initially, such support had been stunted by the tensions between the American North and South during the Civil War as Britain found itself strongly supporting the interests of the South. Around that same time, the British upper class felt resentment towards the colonies that had removed themselves from British rule. By the end of the 19th C, these tensions were dissipating and giving way to a rapidly industrializing USA with fewer economic divisions between North and South on one side of the Atlantic and a lessening in the power of the aristocratic class as well as higher democratization of government on the other. These changes brought a rise in popular support for a positive working relationship between the two nations. As a result, there was a surge in rhetoric, both from government officials and the populace, that characterized the US and Britain as descending from the same family tree. American Statesman Richard Olney described the relationship in saying: “England, our most formidable rival, is our most natural friend. There is such a thing as patriotism for race as well as country” (Kupchan 2010, 98). These ideas valued Anglo-American supremacy and went so far as to argue for a genetic predisposition to the shared ideal of democracy. This sense of a unified identity pushed the two actors towards a deep-rooted
At this point, Britain understood the need to welcome the insuppressible American naval expansion as a way to lessen her own international responsibilities. For example, honoring the mandates of the Monroe doctrine meant that the United States would have to share in the responsibility for the actions and conditions of Latin American territories. US naval supremacy in the West was ultimately cemented in the early 20th Century through the building of a US-controlled Isthmian canal in Central America because of its clear strategic advantage in the event of …show more content…
Initially, such support had been stunted by the tensions between the American North and South during the Civil War as Britain found itself strongly supporting the interests of the South. Around that same time, the British upper class felt resentment towards the colonies that had removed themselves from British rule. By the end of the 19th C, these tensions were dissipating and giving way to a rapidly industrializing USA with fewer economic divisions between North and South on one side of the Atlantic and a lessening in the power of the aristocratic class as well as higher democratization of government on the other. These changes brought a rise in popular support for a positive working relationship between the two nations. As a result, there was a surge in rhetoric, both from government officials and the populace, that characterized the US and Britain as descending from the same family tree. American Statesman Richard Olney described the relationship in saying: “England, our most formidable rival, is our most natural friend. There is such a thing as patriotism for race as well as country” (Kupchan 2010, 98). These ideas valued Anglo-American supremacy and went so far as to argue for a genetic predisposition to the shared ideal of democracy. This sense of a unified identity pushed the two actors towards a deep-rooted