scholarly journals The Special Relationship and the Anglo-Iranian oil crisis, 1950–4

1998 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEVE MARSH

The Anglo-Iranian oil crisis of 1950–4 provides an ideal case-study for those interested in the postwar Anglo-American Special Relationship. This article investigates the oil crisis with two purposes in mind: first, to demonstrate how Britain and the United States struggled to adjust their bilateral relations in response to their changing postwar world positions; second, to show just how crucial both countries perceived the Special Relationship to be in the early 1950s. This is done by examining the American decision not to pursue a policy in the Iranian oil crisis that would undermine Britain's position, despite at times severe Anglo-American tension. It is concluded that the problems created by the changing balance of forces within the Special Relationship were mitigated in Iran by a combination of consanguinity and, more important, the US need for British help in its policy of global containment. In short, Anglo-American policy-makers perceived sufficient mutual need to persuade them to actively preserve and develop the Special Relationship.

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 684-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P Dolowitz ◽  
Dale Medearis

Not enough has been written about the import, adaptation, and application of urban environmental and planning policies from abroad into the United States. Even less has been written about the voluntary cross-national transfer and application of environmental policies by American subnational actors and institutions. It is our intent to begin redressing this by discussing the transfer of urban environmental and planning policies from Germany to the United States during the early part of the 21st century. This discussion is informed by data drawn from governmental reports and planning statements and over thirty-five interviews with US urban environmental and planning practitioners operating in Germany and the United States. What we discover is that, unlike more rational models of policy transfer, the voluntary importation of environmental and planning policies into the US is seldom a problem-focused, goal-oriented process. Rather, what we find is that a better depiction of the transfer and adoption process is of a relatively anarchic situation. This appears to occur due to a range of institutional and cultural filters that predispose American policy makers against gathering (and using) information and experiences from abroad. We find that this filtering process tends to encourage policy makers to discount (or reject outright) the usefulness of overseas models and that, when they do engage in this process, any information gathered appears to be based less upon well-researched and analyzed data than embedded ‘tacit’ knowledge.


Author(s):  
Patrick Porter

This chapter analyses the Anglo-American relationship, and the ambition that by aligning with the United States and paying the ‘blood price’, Britain could win great influence over its strategic direction. Rather than subordinating itself to receive material benefits, British decision-makers believed that by aligning with the US in the War on Terror, they were generating the ability to steer a superpower that otherwise might run amok and jettison itself from the international community. The belief that Britain could have this leverage was encouraged by apparent success in steering the Bush administration towards the United Nations and its authority as the framework through which to confront Saddam. However, the experience of preparing and waging war as junior partner revealed the contradictions within the ‘special relationship’ mindset.


2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 707-727 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER HARRIS

AbstractIn this article, I challenge the prevailing concept of the UK-US ‘special relationship’ with a view to improving the concept as an analytic tool for researchers. As it stands, the special relationship draws attention to an uncommonly close bond between two state actors in the post-Second World War period, especially in terms of military cooperation. This conception imposes analytic costs – namely, an elision of imperialism as a feature of Anglo-American relations and a concomitant marginalisation of subaltern social actors. In response, I propose a reconception that posits the subaltern – third parties – as integral to the relationship, thus better capturing the empirical reality of Anglo-American relations past and present. Theoretically, I draw upon postcolonial International Relations scholarship and recent theories of friendship in international politics. Empirically, I present a case study of the US military base on Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunping Liang ◽  
Baabak Ashuri

PurposeIn classical perspective, projects under a certain size are not feasible for P3. However, there is an emerging trend on using P3 to deliver projects which are frequently at small- to medium- size to meet ever-increasingly complex social needs, including enhancing lifecycle performance of existing facilities, designing and building for resilience and sustainability, ensuring cost effectiveness of public spending and fostering innovation. In contrast with the increasing implementation, small and medium P3s, especially those in the United States, receive little attention in existing studies. This study aims at answering the question: in the context of US, what features of those small- to medium- sized P3s with success records enable the selection of P3 as delivery method.Design/methodology/approachBy critically reviewing the literature, this study synthesizes and discusses the challenges in classical perspective. The authors use a framework drawn from the transaction cost to propose two types of enabling features that could contribute to the success of small and medium P3s. The proposed enabling features are supported by case study of twelve identified small- to medium- sized P3s which have reached financial closure as of 2018 in the United States.FindingsThe results show how the identified enabling opportunities have been used in these cases to enhance the viability of the P3 model in the infrastructure market. The two types of features are high tolerance enabler explained by the expectations on indirect and non-monetary compensations, and cost reduction enablers including: (1) being in the sectors with well-established traditions on using private investments; (2) having developers with expertise on infrastructure finance; (3) being in the jurisdictions with favorable legislative environment and (4) having less-uncertain future project revenue.Originality/valueThis study, for the first time, critically examines the enabling features of the P3 model for delivering small and medium infrastructure projects in the United States. This research sheds light on the credibility and viability of small- to medium- sized P3 and increases the confidence in policy makers to promote this model.


Author(s):  
Oleg Prikhodko

The Anglo-American “special relationship” has characteristics that make it distinct from other alliances led by the United States. The article covers a set of issues ranging from the bilateral nuclear cooperation to a broad web of military links between the US and the UK. It examines the phenomenon of the “special relationship”, its substance and manifestations in security and defense domains, including recent developments. The victory of Joe Biden in the United States 2020 Presidential election, that reversed ‘America First’ policy of D. Trump, makes the future relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom much more predictable. However, the British departure from the European Union is a milestone event with explicit and implicit implications for the policies of the US and the UK. Although it is premature to predict a resulting outcome of Brexit for their relationship, the prevailing view of American and British analysts is that the UK could lose a substantial part of its value for the United States in European matters. Nevertheless, the cooperation between Washington and London in security and defense issues will be no less intense. Moreover, a concept of ‘global Britain’ that is central to Boris Johnson’s foreign and security policies may prove more helpful to the U.S. strategy, especially beyond Europe. At least, an Indo-Pacific commitment on the part of post-Brexit Britain is a striking feature that lies fully in line with the U.S. strategic interests in the region.


Author(s):  
Sally-Ann Treharne

Reagan and Thatcher’s Special Relationship offers a unique insight into one of the most controversial political relationships in recent history. An insightful and original study, it provides a new regionally focused approach to the study of Anglo-American relations. The Falklands War, the US invasion of Grenada, the Anglo-Guatemalan dispute over Belize and the US involvement in Nicaragua are vividly reconstructed as Latin American crises that threatened to overwhelm a renewal in US-UK relations in the 1980s. Reagan and Thatcher’s efforts to normalise relations, both during and after the crises, reveal a mutual desire to strengthen Anglo-American ties and to safeguard individual foreign policy objectives whilst cultivating a close personal and political bond that was to last well beyond their terms in office. This ground-breaking reappraisal analyses pivotal moments in their shared history by drawing on the extensive analysis of recently declassified documents while elite interviews reveal candid recollections by key protagonists providing an alternative vantage point from which to assess the contentious ‘Special Relationship’. Sally-Ann Treharne offers a compelling look into the role personal diplomacy played in overcoming obstacles to Anglo-American relations emanating from the turbulent Latin American region in the final years of the Cold War.


1994 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 203-229
Author(s):  
John D. Blum

National economies worldwide are in disarray, evidenced by escalating debts and growing deficits. As countries struggle with their faltering economies they are hard pressed to fulfill commitments of social programs made in more prosperous times, much less take on new government initiatives. The current experiences in health reform in the United States present an interesting example of the dilemmas governments now face when they embark on new ventures. While great political pressures have been launched and high expectations abound, the reality of American health reform quickly reveals that expanded access will come at a high price that won't be offset easily by conventional cost containment or market forces.In the search for an acceptable model for health reform, it was popular for policy makers and academics to turn their attentions to the health systems of other nations. Recommendations were made that the US should adopt a German or Canadian solution for our health problems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 691-702
Author(s):  
Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet

In 1946, the entertainer and activist Paul Robeson pondered America's intentions in Iran. In what was to become one of the first major crises of the Cold War, Iran was fighting a Soviet aggressor that did not want to leave. Robeson posed the question, “Is our State Department concerned with protecting the rights of Iran and the welfare of the Iranian people, or is it concerned with protecting Anglo-American oil in that country and the Middle East in general?” This was a loaded question. The US was pressuring the Soviet Union to withdraw its troops after its occupation of the country during World War II. Robeson wondered why America cared so much about Soviet forces in Iranian territory, when it made no mention of Anglo-American troops “in countries far removed from the United States or Great Britain.” An editorial writer for a Black journal in St. Louis posed a different variant of the question: Why did the American secretary of state, James F. Byrnes, concern himself with elections in Iran, Arabia or Azerbaijan and yet not “interfere in his home state, South Carolina, which has not had a free election since Reconstruction?”


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Biba

Abstract As the Sino-American Great Power competition continues to intensify, newly-elected US President Joe Biden's administration now seeks to enlist the support of its allies and partners around the world. As Europe's largest economy and a, if not the, leading voice within the European Union, Germany represents an important puzzle-piece for Biden. But Germany, at least under outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel, has been reluctant to take sides. It is against this backdrop that this article looks into Germany's past and present trilateral relationships with the US and China through the theoretical lens of the so-called strategic triangle approach. Applying this approach, the article seeks to trace and explain German behaviour, as well as to elucidate the opportunities and pitfalls that have come with it. The article demonstrates that Germany's recently gained position as a ‘pivot’ (two positive bilateral relationships) between the US and Chinese ‘wings’ (positive bilateral relations with Germany and negative bilateral relations with each other) is desirable from the perspective of the strategic triangle. At the same time, being pivot is also challenging and hard to maintain. Alternative options, such as entering a US–German ‘marriage’ directed against China, are also problematic. The article therefore concludes that Germany has tough decisions to take going forward.


2008 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Harlander

Bioethanol is made from sugar- or starch-containing plants that are also used in food production. In the public perception this has led to an emotional resistance against biofuels, which in real terms is not substantiated. Generally biofuels are a political product. Triggered by the oil crisis in the 1970s, fuel ethanol programmes were first launched in Brazil and in the United States. Concerns regarding energy security and sustainability, together with the option of new markets for surplus agricultural production, have led to similar measures in the EU and other countries in recent years. Accordingly, the industry invested heavily in new bioethanol plants — especially in the US — and created an additional demand for maize and wheat, with some record-breaking prices noted in late 2007. A look back into statistics shows a drastic decline in real prices for decades, which have now simply returned to the level of 30 years ago. The grain used for bioethanol is currently only 1.6% in the EU and is therefore unlikely to be the real driver of price development. The European Commission concludes in its review of agricultural markets that Europe can do both: nutrition and biofuels.


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