The Research Of British Diplomacy Dilemma From Anglo-America "Special Relationship" In Cold War

The strength of the United Kingdom was failed greatly after World War II, in themeantime, the powers of United States became NO.1in the world. But, still the Britainregarded itself as a unique country of the Europe. For this reason, Britain tried tomaintain the traditional diplomacy in period of “The empire on which the sun neversets”—the diplomacy of balance of power. But the Britain was so weak that it had tofind a powerful country as its alliance. Because of the “special relationship”, theUnited States became the first choice of Britain.Anglo-America “special relationship” started in World War II; strengthened afterthe war. In the long time, the “special relationship” played a key role in Britishdiplomacy. The United States wanted to use Britain to prevent the expansion of theSoviet Union and communism in Europe; in the other side, Britain hoped the UnitedStates can help it to keep the strong position in Europe; in that case, Britain could keepthe policy of balance of power. But as the time went by and changes of the worldstructure, the “special relationship” in Anglo-America led Britain into diplomaticdilemma.After World War II, the foundation of British diplomacy was “Three Rings”created by Churchill, including the United States, Europe and the BritishCommonwealth, and the United States was the crucial part in British diplomacy.“Three Rings” diplomacy was the way that Britain wanted to use to return to the firstleading power. But the fact that the rising of American power and descent of Britaincaused the wishes failed. There is no way that America listened to a second-classcountry, and the crack appeared in the “special relationship”. As the foundation of theBritish diplomacy, the changes between the Anglo-America relationships caused thechanges in the whole British diplomatic relations. The countries in Europe started theprocedure of European integration which Britain took an ambiguous attitude,supporting in verbally but rejecting in action, that made new changes in Britain andEurope’s relations. The relationships of the countries of the British Commonwealth andBritain changed as well as those two relations changed. This thesis started from Anglo-America “special relationship”, based onpredecessors’ research results, and analyzed the dilemma of British diplomacy. Thethesis has three parts: introduction, main body and conclusion.The part of introduction mainly points out the meaning of studying this question,the situation of the study at home and abroad, research thinking and main content.The main body has three parts. The first is the formation of the Anglo-America“special relationship”, including source in the culture, the special background in WWIIand the traditional diplomacy of Britain. The second part is the expressiveness ofAnglo-America relationships in the period of consolidation, including politics andeconomy. The third part is the main part of the thesis: the changes of Anglo-Americarelationships and the dilemma of British.The part of conclusion concludes the whole thesis. Analyze the Anglo-America“special relationship” and British diplomacy historically and presently; find theconnection between these, and evaluate it.