The 'Special Relationship'

The world is speculating on the nature of future links between Washington and London after years of notably warm ties between US President George Bush and the former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. The UK media expects Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, to exercise some restraint in his dealings with the United States, which may deemphasise the long-touted 'special relationship' between the two nations.

Brown will certainly want to be seen as his 'own man' rather than being perceived to slavishly follow the current US administration.  He will certainly not cultivate -- or wish for -- a personal relationship anything like the Bush and Blair rapport. The initial weeks of Brown's tenure were interpreted as a desire to place some distance between Downing Street and the White House:

• Brown appointed the then Sir Mark (now Lord) Malloch-Brown, a highly public and scathing critic of neo-conservatism, to act as a senior foreign minister; and
• International development minister Douglas Alexander gave a speech in Washington interpreted as urging the United States to conduct its foreign policies through the State Department and not the Pentagon.

But any real diplomatic estrangement in the long-term will not happen, not least because the relationship has always meant slightly more to London than it has to Washington. Beyond linguistic and cultural commonalities, there are strong ties between the two states and societies, including:

• intensive and extensive intelligence ties;
• the permanent presence of US bases and electronic intelligence stations on UK soil;
• frequent, high-level interchanges of service personnel; and
• the exchange of nuclear and missile technology.

This spirit of cooperation feeds the conviction -- albeit asymmetrical -- that the relationship is 'special'. However, with the exception of US-UK nuclear cooperation, Washington has the same ties with some of its other allies in the English-speaking world (eg, Canada and Australia), and Japan.  UK politicians may call this a 'special relationship'; but Washington clearly does not assign it the same priority or significance.

Washington has never considered London an ally uber alles. Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was always sceptical that Washington-London relations were unique; Bill Clinton reportedly threw back his head and laughed when he was reminded of paying lip service to the countries' extraordinary friendship.

While US-UK ties are strong, popular perceptions of the 'special relationship' have long been divorced from reality.  The closeness of the Bush-Blair partnership was unusual -- and has ended under Brown. This will allow the new prime minister to prepare for the post-Bush period in US politics far better than his predecessor might have done.