The Anglo-American Military Relationship: Arms Across the Ocean

The Anglo-American Military Relationship explores military cooperation since the end of the Cold War. Much of the literature on the Anglo-American ’Special Relationship’ has focused on the personal linkages between American Presidents and British Prime Ministers. This book argues that much of what is special between the two countries has resided in their military cooperation. This has provided the ballast that has underpinned other aspects of the political and economic relationship and given it durability.

The book focuses on how the British armed services have worked alongside a superpower, in both peacetime and conflict. This military cooperation has been a challenging task, not least because it has occurred within a dynamic strategic context in which the nature of conflict has been evolving. British armed forces have engaged with their American allies in high intensity warfare, as well as in developing military doctrines to address insurgency, peace enforcement, and nation-building tasks. Working so closely with the US military has generated risks as well as benefits for Britain’s armed forces. It has led them to engage in tasks that have weighed heavily upon their resources and has resulted in numerous tensions between the two sides.

Wyn Rees, Professor of International Security, University of Nottingham

Wyn Rees is Professor of International Security in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham. Prior to this he taught at the University of Leicester, the College of Europe in Bruges, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He researches, publishes, and teaches on the subjects of transatlantic security relations, British defence policy, and counter-terrorism.