The Anglo-American and Israeli-American special relationships have proved to be unusually close a... more The Anglo-American and Israeli-American special relationships have proved to be unusually close and have confounded expectations that they would wither away with the changing international environment. In order to explain this, the article proposes a theory of ‘alliance persistence’ that is based on reciprocity over shared geostrategic interests, sentimental attachments and institutionalised security relations. The article employs this theoretical framework to explore how Anglo-American and Israeli-American relations have developed during the Obama administration. It argues that the Anglo-American relationship has been closer because of the two countries’ shared strategic interests, whilst the Israeli-American relationship has experienced divergences in how the security interests of the two sides have been pursued. The article concludes by assessing how the two relationships will fair in the post-Obama era and argues that there are numerous areas of tension in the US-Israeli relationship that risk future tensions.
This article analyzes Sino-Iranian relations and mutual strategic perceptions, highlighting seve... more This article analyzes Sino-Iranian relations and mutual strategic perceptions, highlighting several types of tension in Sino-Iranian ties alongside areas of deeper cooperation. We examine in particular the policy debates about China between conservatives and reformists within Iran, and we compare their views of China to the views of Iran held by Chinese commentators. To that end, we extensively survey both the official media and scholarly literature in Farsi and in Chinese, since each strand reveals different sentiments and is accorded a different degree of openness. A relatively little-studied debate is under way in the Islamic Republic of Iran between the two main factions of the political elite, conveniently divided into camps of conservatives and reformists, over Iran's relations with the great powers. In these strategic debates, and for different reasons, relations with the People's Republic of China, on the one hand, and the United States, on the other, have loomed large. The outcome of these debates will likely have profound implications for Iran's place in the emerging post-bipolar international order and for how Tehran will project itself regionally and internationally. With this in mind, this article analyzes Sino-Iranian relations, drawing on a large array of primary sources in both Farsi and Chinese. We will highlight several tiers of tension in Sino-Iranian ties alongside areas of cooperation. In the conclusion , we will draw on our analysis of Chinese and Iranian perceptions, in particular on policy debates between conservatives and reformists within Iran, in a bid to assess how Sino-Iranian relations might fare in the future. To that end, we have undertaken an extensive survey of the Farsi-language media , teasing out the sentiments and rationales guiding reformist and conservative policy makers in Tehran. The recurrent themes in the Iranian discourse will be cross-referenced with the discourse about Iran inside China, in order to weigh up the validity of optimistic as well as ambivalent strands regarding China's and Iran's current and prospective relations.
One of the remarkable phenomena in post-Cold War world politics is the persis-tence of the Anglo-... more One of the remarkable phenomena in post-Cold War world politics is the persis-tence of the Anglo-American special relationship (AASR) in spite of recurrent announcement of its death by pessimists. Current scholarship on Anglo-American relations largely draws on interests and sentiments to explain the persistence of the AASR, ignoring other important contributing factors such as institutional-ization. This article is the first to give serious consideration to the role of institu-tionalization in influencing the persistence of the AASR. By using the concept of path dependence, this article argues that the high-level institutionalization in Anglo-American intelligence, nuclear and military relations plays a seminal role in contributing to the persistence of the AASR in the post-Cold War era. The insti-tutionalized intelligence relationship is exemplified by the relationship between the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the US’s National Security Agency (NSA), which is underpinned by the UKUSA Agree-ment. The institutionalized nuclear relationship is exemplified by a variety of Joint Working Groups (JOWOGs), which is underpinned by the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement. The institutionalized military relationship is exemplified by routin-ized military personnel exchange programmes, regular joint training exercises and an extremely close defence trade partnership. The high-level institutionalization embeds habits of cooperation, solidifies interdependence and consolidates mutual trust between the UK and the US in their cooperation on intelligence, nuclear and military issues
The Anglo-American and Israeli-American special relationships have proved to be unusually close a... more The Anglo-American and Israeli-American special relationships have proved to be unusually close and have confounded expectations that they would wither away with the changing international environment. In order to explain this, the article proposes a theory of ‘alliance persistence’ that is based on reciprocity over shared geostrategic interests, sentimental attachments and institutionalised security relations. The article employs this theoretical framework to explore how Anglo-American and Israeli-American relations have developed during the Obama administration. It argues that the Anglo-American relationship has been closer because of the two countries’ shared strategic interests, whilst the Israeli-American relationship has experienced divergences in how the security interests of the two sides have been pursued. The article concludes by assessing how the two relationships will fair in the post-Obama era and argues that there are numerous areas of tension in the US-Israeli relationship that risk future tensions.
This article analyzes Sino-Iranian relations and mutual strategic perceptions, highlighting seve... more This article analyzes Sino-Iranian relations and mutual strategic perceptions, highlighting several types of tension in Sino-Iranian ties alongside areas of deeper cooperation. We examine in particular the policy debates about China between conservatives and reformists within Iran, and we compare their views of China to the views of Iran held by Chinese commentators. To that end, we extensively survey both the official media and scholarly literature in Farsi and in Chinese, since each strand reveals different sentiments and is accorded a different degree of openness. A relatively little-studied debate is under way in the Islamic Republic of Iran between the two main factions of the political elite, conveniently divided into camps of conservatives and reformists, over Iran's relations with the great powers. In these strategic debates, and for different reasons, relations with the People's Republic of China, on the one hand, and the United States, on the other, have loomed large. The outcome of these debates will likely have profound implications for Iran's place in the emerging post-bipolar international order and for how Tehran will project itself regionally and internationally. With this in mind, this article analyzes Sino-Iranian relations, drawing on a large array of primary sources in both Farsi and Chinese. We will highlight several tiers of tension in Sino-Iranian ties alongside areas of cooperation. In the conclusion , we will draw on our analysis of Chinese and Iranian perceptions, in particular on policy debates between conservatives and reformists within Iran, in a bid to assess how Sino-Iranian relations might fare in the future. To that end, we have undertaken an extensive survey of the Farsi-language media , teasing out the sentiments and rationales guiding reformist and conservative policy makers in Tehran. The recurrent themes in the Iranian discourse will be cross-referenced with the discourse about Iran inside China, in order to weigh up the validity of optimistic as well as ambivalent strands regarding China's and Iran's current and prospective relations.
One of the remarkable phenomena in post-Cold War world politics is the persis-tence of the Anglo-... more One of the remarkable phenomena in post-Cold War world politics is the persis-tence of the Anglo-American special relationship (AASR) in spite of recurrent announcement of its death by pessimists. Current scholarship on Anglo-American relations largely draws on interests and sentiments to explain the persistence of the AASR, ignoring other important contributing factors such as institutional-ization. This article is the first to give serious consideration to the role of institu-tionalization in influencing the persistence of the AASR. By using the concept of path dependence, this article argues that the high-level institutionalization in Anglo-American intelligence, nuclear and military relations plays a seminal role in contributing to the persistence of the AASR in the post-Cold War era. The insti-tutionalized intelligence relationship is exemplified by the relationship between the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the US’s National Security Agency (NSA), which is underpinned by the UKUSA Agree-ment. The institutionalized nuclear relationship is exemplified by a variety of Joint Working Groups (JOWOGs), which is underpinned by the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement. The institutionalized military relationship is exemplified by routin-ized military personnel exchange programmes, regular joint training exercises and an extremely close defence trade partnership. The high-level institutionalization embeds habits of cooperation, solidifies interdependence and consolidates mutual trust between the UK and the US in their cooperation on intelligence, nuclear and military issues
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