This comprehensive analysis sheds light on the character, nature, legacy, and future of the UK-US alliance
After the UK-US alliance's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, many observers declared the alliance—often dubbed "the special relationship"—dead. Yet this was hardly the first time this partnership was read its last rites. Indeed, one of the alliance's defining characteristics is its resilience in the face of political volatility and geopolitical shifts.
Transatlantic Storms in Anglo-American Relations explains how the world's most globally influential institutional partnership persists despite countless crises. The book's contributions from distinguished scholars explore the roots and evolution of the US-UK alliance; the nuclear, military, and intelligence pillars of cooperation; and underappreciated aspects of economic and defense-industrial interdependence. Drawing on primary research from archives and interviews, the volume documents lesser-known strategic flashpoints and reveals how twentieth-century crises challenged the alliance without breaking its foundations.
Amid the US rebalance to the Indo-Pacific and Donald Trump's return to the White House, James and Kennedy offer an essential guide for understanding the character, legacy, and future of the UK-US relationship.
About the Author
William D. James is assistant professor of strategic studies in the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is the author of British Grand Strategy in the Age of American Hegemony (2024).
Greg Kennedy is professor of strategic foreign policy in the Defence Studies Department at King's College London, where he leads the Economic Conflict & Competition Research Group. He is the author of Anglo-American Strategic Relations and the Far East, 1933–1939 (2002) and of over ten other edited volumes on defense policy and strategy.
