Neither the sure prevention of war, nor the continuous rise of
             world organization will be gained without what I have called the
             fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples. This
             means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth
             and Empire and the United States.[1]
             The wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, himself of mixed
             Anglo-American parentage, is credited with inventing the phrase special
             relationship' to describe the particular connection between the United
             Kingdom and the United States.[2] A relationship that was special' in
             certain respects had existed between the two nations before 1939-40, but it
             was the experience of the Second World War that made an Anglo-American
             relationship defined in terms of closeness, co-operation and mutual respect
             into a reality. General George C. Marshall's comment that the Anglo-
             American war effort represented the most complete unification of military
             effort ever achieved by two allied states' in the history of warfare[3] is
             revealing not only in reflecting, accurately, the extent of the integration
             of the Allied war effort (at least in the European theater) but also the
             perception among the transatlantic political and military elite of the
             extent and importance of that integration. The wartime experience laid a
             foundation that endures to the present day.
             However, there are three essential points that must be borne in mind
             in any analysis of the special relationship: first, the inherent imbalance
             of power between the United States and the United Kingdom; second, that the
             relationship is not a given fact of nature' but a human artefact that is
             constantly renegotiated and changed to reflect changing circumstances; and
             third, that it is in the final analysis a matter of interests rather than
             of ideology, shared culture, or sentiment (although that ...