‘British Leadership is Experienced, Cool-Headed and Predictable’:Anglo-Danish relations and the United States from the end of the Second World War to the Cold War

Abstract

This article analyses and portrays the bilateral relationship between Great Britain and Denmark from the end of the Second World War to 1951. It is shown how Great Britain played an important role for Denmark in this period both as a trading partner and as a political partner. This state of affairs was primarily due to most Danish politicians holding a dichotomous view on the still more influential partner in the far west, the United States. In the early post-war years, Denmark thus relied on Britain in both major and minor matters. It is argued that Britain exploited this state of affairs to promote British policies and political as well as economic interests in the still more important Nordic region in an era where British influence on world politics was diminishing and where British policies were certainly not always in concordance with American policies.