A UK-EU Divorce: Bad News for America

A UK-EU Divorce: Bad News for America

Dec 03, 2013 02:00 am | Jeff Lightfoot, Tim Oliver

Jeff Lightfoot

Tim Oliver

The recent unveiling of a bust of Sir Winston Churchill in the Capitol Building offered a reminder of the long-standing special relationship between Great Britain and the United States. But there is something that keeps the relationship special today which the British shy away from: Britain’s membership in the European Union.
Since the 1960s, successive American administrations—Democratic and Republican—have supported the UK’s participation in European integration, a project the United States encouraged in order to help unite Western Europe after the Second World War.
Today, both the EU and Britain’s participation in it are acquiring new importance. The emergence of a multipolar world and the decline of U.S. unilateralist impulses, mean Washington increasingly needs to work with like-minded allies. Gone are the days when Washington feared that a more cohesive EU would lead to a transatlantic divorce. To the contrary, a stronger EU with the UK at its core is now seen as the best way of ensuring that Europe remains a relevant American ally.
For all the talk of an ‘Asian pivot,’ the United States remains a European power and Europe remains vital to U.S. interests. The United States and Europe are the foundation of the world’s most powerful military alliance, and are linked by the most vibrant and deep economic relationship in the world. Shared values and ideals underpin the partnership and have enabled it to outlast the Cold War.
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