Beyond Values and Interests: The Anglo-America Special Relationship during the Syrian Conflict

Justin Gibbins,Shaghayegh Rostampour

doi:10.4236/ojps.2019.91005

Abstract

This paper attempts to reveal how intervention in international conflicts (re) constructs the Anglo-American Special Relationship (AASR). To do this, this article uses Syria as a case study. Analyzing parliamentary debates, presidential/prime ministerial speeches and formal official addresses, it offers a discursive constructivist analysis of key British and US political spokespeople. We argue that historically embedded values and interests stemming from unity forged by World War Two have taken on new meanings: the AASR being constructed by both normative and strategic cultures. The former, we argue, continues to forge a common alliance between the US and Britain, while the latter produces notable tensions between the two states.

Highlights

At various times in its protracted history, the Anglo-American Special Relationship1 has waxed and waned in its potency since Winston Churchill’s first usage
We argue that historically embedded values and interests stemming from unity forged by World War Two have taken on new meanings: the American Special Relationship (AASR) being constructed by both normative and strategic cultures
The Thatcher-Reagan years produced, by contrast, an “extraordinary alliance” (Reynolds, 1985-6: p. 1) with a fusion not merely of Anglo-American interests, namely the pursuit of anticommunism, and a conceptual coalition championing the logic of economic liberalism

Summary

Introduction

At various times in its protracted history, the Anglo-American Special Relationship has waxed and waned in its potency since Winston Churchill’s first usage. It absorbs elements of the old and yet seems to take on new faces. Crises are events that give meaning to these new faces by galvanizing state representatives to articulate their views and ideas. Such watershed moments, called critical junctures, can be defined as “... The final section highlights how the Special Relationship has gone beyond traditional invocations of values and interests.

Anglo-American Special Relations

Methodology

Values and Interests: A Bygone Relationship?

A Normative Relationship

A Strategic Relationship

Conclusion