‘Three Whores at a christening’: The North Atlantic Triangle Beyond Suez

Abstract

ABSTRACT For much of its history, Canadian policymakers conceived of Canada as operating within the North Atlantic Triangle, a descriptor of its close economic, cultural, military, and diplomatic ties with Britain and the United States. Frequently, within this triangular relationship, Canada had sought to counterbalance one side against the other. This task became increasingly difficult with the post-1940 transition of power, even as it made the counterbalancing effects of the Triangle all the more important. Examining American-British-Canadian relations in the wake of the Suez Crisis, this article traces that ongoing salience of the North Atlantic Triangle. In particular, it examines Canadian efforts to pursue their interests against the backdrop both of Britain’s decline and US hegemony and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s efforts to rekindle London’s ‘special relationship’ with Washington.