US And UK Research Articles

The US, BREXIT and Anglo-American relations

At the time of writing, US President Donald Trump is embattled in the White House, Theresa May gambled and lost her government’s working majority at the June 2017 General Election, BREXIT is mired in confusion, Trump has pronounced trade wars a ‘good thing’ and transatlantic relations are unsettled. Now is, therefore, a fascinating — if uncertain — time to consider the state of Anglo-American relations. This article argues that concern for the special relationship arising from Britain’s forthcoming loss of influence within the European Union is overstated and obscures a more important consideration - namely the economic capacity of post-BREXIT Britain to continue ‘paying the price’ of special access to and cooperation with Washington. It also argues that whatever Washington does or does not do during BREXIT negotiations will be an important factor in how Britain emerges from the Union. The terms of British departure are the province of Westminster and Brussels but proactive American shaping of the environment in which BREXIT is negotiated and effected could strengthen British prospects significantly. Conversely were the Trump White House to neglect or mishandle the BREXIT process it would risk greater instability in transatlantic relations and the further erosion of America’s most capable and reliable ally.

From empire to Atlantic ‘system’: the Round Table, Chatham House and the emergence of a new paradigm in Anglo-American relations

The aim of the article is to investigate the ideological and material influence by the Round Table Movement on the origins of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London,...

Anglo-American Relations and Crisis in The Congo

ABSTRACTThe 1960 Belgian Congo crisis is generally seen as demonstrating Anglo-American friction and British policy weakness. Macmillan’s decision to ‘stand aside’ during UN ‘Operation Grandslam’, especially, is cited as a policy failure with long-term corrosive effects on Anglo-American relations. This article recasts this decision as a shrewd manoeuvre in extremely tight circumstances, balancing multiple interests and preventing an open breach with Kennedy’s Congo policy. Moreover, ‘stand aside’ facilitated subsequent Anglo-American cooperation in the Congo, which this article demonstrates by examining events beyond December 1962, where much of the current analysis peters out.

The Development and Transformation of Anglo-American Relations in Lawn Tennis around the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Anglo-American relations in tennis are a fascinating subject, particularly in the period of the late-19th/early-20th century, during which on- and off-court developments reflected and indicated broader societal shifts, as the US gradually replaced Britain as the world’s leading industrialized nation. This paper aims to discuss how Anglo-American relations in lawn tennis shifted throughout this period, from when lawn tennis was “invented” in Britain to the onset of the Great War, and to contextualize these developments in the light of shifting broader cultural relations more generally between both nations, alongside developments within sport and tennis more specifically. The following aspects are examined: attitudes toward the relative standards of both American and British players from correspondents of both nations in terms of their overall rank and possibilities of success; and, attitudes from tennis officials toward the formal organization of competitions between players of both nations.

The United States, Britain and the Marshall Plan: oil and finance in the early postwar era*

Abstract This paper discusses United States foreign economic policy in the early post-World War II period, focusing on Anglo-American relations and the international oil industry. Contrary to popular opinion, these relations were not friendly, as one of the goals of US policymakers was to force the former power to relinquish key areas of strategic and commercial influence, such as the trading networks of the British Commonwealth and, more importantly, the oil regions of the Middle East. In particular, the paper analyzes US oil policy during the Marshall Plan. Though not questioning the Plan’s overall positive impact on European economic growth, the paper argues that, with regard to the oil industry, its primary objective was not to stimulate recovery but to secure a dominant role for US producers in the Middle East.

Similar impressions? Anglo-American relations and South Asia, autumn 1971

Despite divergences of policy over South Asia in autumn 1971, Heath and Nixon’s communications focused upon areas of agreement. An unwillingness to confront disagreements over policy subsequently fostered misunderstandings between the two allies as both lent tacit support to opposite sides of a hot war in South Asia just weeks later. Nonetheless, Heath’s desire to improve the tone of Anglo-American relations in the autumn of 1971 provides a further challenge to the commonly held assertion that his desire to enter the EC led him to shun an amiable relations with the US.

Churchill and the Anglo-American special relationship

An important anniversary often provides a valuable hook on which to hang a re-assessment of a key theme in international history. In this case, the 70th anniversary of Winston Churchill's Fulton sp...

Space as gravitational field: the empire and the Atlantic in the political thought of Thomas Pownall

ABSTRACT This article surveys the concepts of space and power in the political thought of Thomas Pownall, governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay before the Stamp Act crisis and later a member of Parliament. Looking at Pownall’s administrative treatises and parliamentary speeches as sources for a conceptual analysis, I intend to assess Pownall’s political and theoretical involvement in the transformations of his time. Pownall traced a connection between property and power that emerged from his analysis of society and government. In determining the position of power in space, property became the factor which organized space itself. Scaled up in the Atlantic, this connection between property and power influenced Pownall’s reflection on the American Revolution and on Anglo-American relations in the aftermath of independence. Pownall faced the revolutionary developments of his age by articulating new spatial assemblages: his changing response to the American Revolution took the form of two proposals that demanded a constitutional incorporation of the colonies and a federal organization of the North American empire in the 1760s and 1770s, respectively. After American independence, he theorized the Atlantic as an economic and political space organized by commercial relations and controlled by an Anglo-American ‘Atlantic Alliance’.

THE UNITED STATES, BRITAIN, AND MILITARY ASSISTANCE TO NIGERIA

AbstractIn Nigeria, Britain asserted its post-colonial security role during and immediately after the transfer of power, and remained responsible for assisting the Nigerian armed forces. While the Americans recognized Nigeria's potential as an important partner in the Cold War, they preferred to focus on development aid. Washington was thus supposed to complement British assistance, while leaving the responsibility for the security sector to London. But with the escalation of the Cold War in Africa, the Nigerians’ efforts to reduce their dependency on the United Kingdom, and Nigeria's growing significance for the United States in African affairs, this Anglo-American burden-sharing was increasingly questioned in Washington. The United States thus eventually decided to militarize its aid policy towards Nigeria. In analysing the militarization of US aid policy towards Nigeria, this article will, first, assess the Anglo-American relationship in the early 1960s; secondly, position Nigeria in American Cold War policy towards Sub-Saharan Africa; thirdly, question the role of military assistance in Washington's policy towards Nigeria and Africa; and fourthly, discover the regional and local factors that influenced policy-makers in Washington and London.

Putting Out the “Embers of This Resentment”: Anglo-American Relations and the Rewriting of the British Response to the American Civil War, 1914–1925

This article uncovers a major shift in the memory of the British reaction to the American Civil War. It argues that between the mid-1910s and mid-1920s, Britons and Americans who wanted to advance a closer Anglo-American alliance during and immediately after the Great War tried to foster a new memory of the British response to the Civil War, one which downplayed the tensions between the countries that had developed during and because of the historical American conflict. The article traces the generation of this new memory and demonstrates its impact on both Anglo-American relations and on early historical writing on the British reaction to the Civil War.

The Gerry Adams Visa in Anglo-American Relations

This article argues, firstly, that British diplomats were so taken aback by the Gerry Adams visa in 1994 they were incapable of countering President Clinton's sudden diplomatic initiative. Secondly, it argues that British officials tacitly welcomed the ends of American intercession, though they resisted the means. This was not because Adams was uniquely wicked but because his visa showed the limitations of their influence in a capital city supposedly more pro-British than any other.

Англо-американские отношения в 1916-1917 гг.: борьба по вопросам будущего мира. Мирное наступление В. Вильсона

Англо-американские отношения в 1916-1917 гг.: борьба по вопросам будущего мира. Мирное наступление В. Вильсона

Hating America? Great Britain and the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

This article examines reactions in Great Britain to the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in June 1953. Through an assessment of the papers of the British National Rosenberg Defence Committee and other archival sources, it challenges the view that British responses were characterised by anti-Americanism. It suggests that the protest movement was heterogeneous, motivated by various concerns and even had significant intellectual and political links with the US. Moreover, the bipolar international system of the early Cold War and desire not to jeopardise the nascent Anglo-American relationship prevented the growth of a more popular movement. This research adds to work on perceptions of the US in the political culture of post-war Britain.

‘That degree of isolation is the measure of our appreciation of the great work you are beginning’: Trans-Pacific aviation as an opportunity and a challenge

Abstract Pan American World Airways’ (Pan Am) decision to establish regular air service between the United States and the South Pacific in the 1930s forced Australia and New Zealand to reconsider their position within the Empire and challenged their understanding of the Asia-Pacific. Technological improvements were outpacing the imperial system. The Pacific was no longer a British lake and America threatened to dominate the new and vital air links so valuable to the isolated Dominions. Furthermore, Pan Am was not prepared to proceed at the slow gentlemanly pace that had previously characterized imperial relations. The opening of the air routes to the South Pacific led to diplomatic and military interests in previously all but ignored atolls and reefs in the South Pacific, which thrust New Zealand into the forefront of imperial relations. New Zealand responded to the opportunities and challenges posed by Pan Am’s decision to begin operating a trans-Pacific service with considerable diplomatic finesse and sought to ensure that its own interests were preserved without offending the mother country. Pan Am’s operations also challenged Anglo-American relations when at the time Britain could ill-afford to offend Washington. In a period that witnessed the rise of fascism in Europe and an expansionist Japan in Asia, the Royal Navy and the United States Navy were facing off over an uninhabited atoll in the South Pacific. Britain’s high-risk diplomatic tactics over Canton Island thus exposed not just a trans-Pacific air link but endangered the Anglo-American relationship and threatened to upset a significant Pacific ally. This article is the first to make use of unrestricted access to the archives of Pan Am and places the establishment of Pan Am’s South Pacific operations into an imperial context.

Relative Price Dispersion and Inflation: Evidence for the UK and the US

Abstract One potential real effect of inflation is its influence on the dispersion of relative prices in the economy which affects economic efficiency and aggregate output. Using a novel data set for the US and UK and a VARMA asymmetric bivariate GARCH-M model of inflation and relative price dispersion, we test for the effects of inflation and inflation uncertainty on relative price dispersion. We obtain two main results: First, inflation affects relative price dispersion positively in the US supporting the menu costs model and negatively in the UK supporting the monetary search model. Second, there is no evidence for the role of inflation uncertainty in explaining relative price dispersion, either for the US or the UK. Relative Preisunterschiede und Inflation: Evidenz fur Grosbritannien und die Vereinigten Staaten Zusammenfassung Ein potentieller realwirtschaftlicher Effekt von Inflation ist ihr Einfluss auf die Verteilung der relativen Preise in einer Volkswirtschaft. Dies beeinflusst wiederum die okono...

The War of Seduction: The Anglo-American Struggle to Engage with the Portuguese Ruling Elite (1943–1948)

ABSTRACTEmotions and perceived cultural differences have only recently been subject to sustained attention from international historians. By tracing the role of personal politics in Anglo-American relations with Portugal in the mid-1940s, this paper intends to introduce hitherto neglected culturalist approaches into the historiography. The purpose is to illustrate the importance of cultural factors to scholarly explanation of Anglo-American relations and rivalries, of the decline of British influence over Lisbon and of the continuation of the authoritarian Portuguese regime after the Second World War, albeit integrated into an American sphere of influence.

A Study on the Usability of Mobile Real Estate Service Search Filter and Information Quality -Focused on domestic, US and UK cases-

A Study on the Usability of Mobile Real Estate Service Search Filter and Information Quality -Focused on domestic, US and UK cases-

Shakespeare's Literary Lives: The Author as Character in Fiction and Film

This is an entertaining account of Shakespeare's afterlives in fiction. Paul Franssen offers the first sustained analysis of stories and films that involve the character of Shakespeare. Taking a broad international and historical perspective, he shows how fictions about Shakespeare help us understand what he meant to a certain age, nation, or author, and how they have become a vital aspect of the Shakespeare industry. Appearing sometimes as a ghost or time-traveller, fictional Shakespeares have been made to speak to many issues, such as the French Revolution, the Irish conflict, colonialism, the Anglo-American relationship, sexual orientation, race and class. Written in an accessible style, this book will appeal to advanced students as well as academic researchers in Shakespeare studies, film and cultural studies, literary reception and creative writing.

Lord Lyons: A Diplomat in an Age of Nationalism and War, by Brian Jenkins

According to the New York Tribune, Richard Bickerton Pemell Lyons, was ‘a model Embassador [sic]’. Made in 1862, almost half-way through Lyons’s diplomatic career, it was, in some respects, a perceptive comment, capturing the prevailing sense that he was a balanced and sober but, above all, professional diplomat; it is, however, also an ambiguous one, for, in praising Lyons’s courtesy, inoffensiveness and his fidelity to his instructions (and no more), the Tribune did not, in reality, offer a very precise definition of that model. Brian Jenkins refers to this judgement at different points in this meticulous biography of one of Britain’s pre-eminent nineteenth-century diplomats, agreeing with the notion that Lyons was unusually important, but lamenting that it has helped sustain imprecise and misleading understandings of Lyons’s work and impact. There is no doubt that Lyons was a significant figure in British diplomacy. Having first entered the diplomatic service as an unpaid attaché to Athens in 1839, he was soon given a paid role there, and during the 1840s and 1850s moved to postings in Dresden, the Papal States and Tuscany, before crossing the Atlantic to become Britain’s Minister to the United States in 1858. He was Britain’s minister in Washington during the American Civil War before taking up the ambassadorship in Constantinople in 1865, from where he then moved to Paris, serving as ambassador for twenty years from 1867 to 1887. He had the fortune, therefore, as Jenkins observes, to be ‘at the heart of four of the great international issues and crises of the second half of the nineteenth-century: Italian unification, the American Civil War, the decline of the Ottoman Empire, and France’s replacement by the newly unified Germany as the dominant continental power’ (p. 6). Jenkins narrates these episodes from Lyons’s perspective, and draws attention to the ways in which diplomacy continued to be shaped by the actions of a limited number of individuals—and so, for example, Lyons’s personal role in settling the ‘Don Pacifico affair’ with Greece in the 1840s is stressed; likewise his ability to smooth British-American relations and avert collisions in the 1860s (not least over the Trent affair)—and in so doing Jenkins sheds a useful light on the machinery of diplomacy. Lyons’s determination to uphold British ‘prestige’ and to use his missions and embassies as reflections of national standing, down to securing appropriate furnishings for public buildings and providing good dinners for dignitaries, show how that machinery could be effectively oiled. This is an important contribution, therefore, to diplomatic history, and, though it might be judged to be an exaggeration in some respects, one can see why Jenkins argues that, for example, Lyons ‘held the future of Anglo-American relations in his hands’ between 1861 and 1864 (p. 11). Indeed, while much attention to Lyons has tended to focus on his ambassadorship to Paris (when he had reached ‘the pinnacle of his profession’), Jenkins prefers to see Lyons’s time in the USA as the most important period, politically, of his career (p. 6). Thus, the Washington years occupy about as much space in the book as the Paris ones (approximately a third each).

Anglo-American relations over Aden and the United Arab Emirates, 1967–71

ABSTRACTThe British decision to withdraw from Aden in 1967 was a political decision made because of Labour's distaste for imperialism and empire. As Aden descended into chaos and disorder, the Americans watched with equanimity; accepting an increased Soviet and Chinese presence in the Federation after British withdrawal. Later, the Nixon administration supported British attempts to federate tiny Arabian sheikhdoms on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula into the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The main American concern was for Britain to hand over the Tunbs and Musa Islands to the Shah of Iran whom Nixon had anointed American shieldbearer in the Gulf. This the British willingly did in order to secure access to the lucrative Iranian market, while at the same time the Heath government succeeded in creating the UAE.