The U.S. and Soviet Response to Britain’s Decline
Keyword(s):
Building on the preceding chapter, Chapter 3 analyzes U.S. and Soviet responses to the decline of the United Kingdom. This portion of the book shows that the United States and Soviet Union each adopted supportive strategies towards Britain in 1945-1947, calculating that each could use Great Britain to compete against the other. However, once Britain decisively aligned with the United States after mid-1947, U.S. and Soviet efforts diverged: U.S. strategy remained highly supportive, whereas the Soviet Union turned toward predation. These results provide strong evidence in support of the argument, matching predictions derived from predation theory (see Chapter 3) while disconfirming the course of events expected by alternative arguments.