ROME - In geopolitics, the concept of a “special relationship” between the United States and the United Kingdom has been a cornerstone of strategic thinking since Winston Churchill coined the phrase in 1946. While it can mean vastly different things depending on who’s employing it, the basic idea is that the two partners will stand by one another even when one may privately believe the other is wrong.
For example, the US belatedly backed the UK in the Falklands conflict in 1982, and the UK reluctantly followed the US under George W Bush into war in Iraq in 2003. Both paid a price for their loyalty: the US watched Argentina, a reliable Cold War ally, drift into an ever-closer relationship with Cuba and Latin America’s anti-colonial movements, while the Iraq debacle was the beginning of the end for the Blair regime in the UK. That, perhaps, is the real definition of a special relationship – putting your own skin in the game, in order to back your partner.
