Churchill and the Anglo-american Special Relationship

This book draws together some of the most established and best emergent scholars in a timely, critical celebration of Churchill’s contribution to establishing the Anglo-American special relationship.

2016 marks the 70th anniversary of Churchill’s declaration in his Fulton speech of an 'Iron Curtain' descending across Europe and of an Anglo-American 'special relationship' that would be the core of global resistance to communism in the Cold War. This phrase most caught attention and became subsequently an iconic representation of the Cold War but it was not necessarily Churchill’s primary preoccupation in this speech.

Churchill has since become emblematic of the special relationship and debate has raged about what, if anything, justifies Anglo-American relations as being ‘special’ within international relations. The book is an innovative transnational history that adopts a multi/inter-disciplinary approach and is tightly focussed around three central research themes: the natural or constructed nature of the special relationship; Churchill’s aspirations and specific aims for a special relationship; and Churchill’s success or otherwise in fashioning the special relationship he desired within the evolving Cold War context.

This book will be of much interest to students of Anglo-American relations, Cold War Studies, foreign policy, international history and IR in general.