Joe Biden is in town, and this morning’s papers are leading on reports that he and Rishi Sunak are “downplaying” divisions between the United Kingdom and America over strategy in Eastern Europe. The issue this time is that the United States has decided to send cluster munitions to Ukraine.
This country has signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits us from using them, developing them, or assisting others in either of the above. It also stipulates that:
“Each State Party shall encourage States not party to this Convention to ratify, accept, approve or accede to this Convention, with the goal of attracting the adherence of all States to this Convention.”
One can imagine how this has played out, especially in light of reports to the press from officials that discussions were “amicable”. The Prime Minister notes that he is required by the UK’s international obligations to discourage anyone from sending cluster bombs to Ukraine; the President listens politely as this ritual is conducted; they both move swiftly on.
It all has a slightly Potemkin air to it. But it is also a reminder that despite (or indeed, perhaps because) the United States is the central military pillar of the western alliance, it very often sits at an explicit imperial remove from the structures we sometimes associate with “the international rules-based order”: for example, Washington does not recognise the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
Beyond that, one has to wonder if the question of the leadership of NATO came up. Jens Stoltenberg, the incumbent Secretary General, has had to extend his current term after “difficulties” finding a successor; chief amongst those difficulties was the US’ opposition to Ben Wallace taking the role.
This was written up in outraged terms in sections of the British press, especially when it emerged that Biden’s preferred candidate seems to be Ursula von der Leyen. Mostly known to British readers from her current role as President of the European Commission, more pertinent here is her woeful stint as German defence minister, and indeed Germany’s generally tepid response towards the renascent Russian threat.
Cue the usual complaints. Is Biden snubbing Britain because of his Irish American roots? Will this development damage the Special Relationship?
On the first of these, the answer is: almost certainly not. Even were the President minded to be so petty (and it’s important to remember that in his long career in the Senate he had a reputation as an Anglophile), the United States is not a ramshackle despotism. It has a permanent diplomatic and military staff, and they are likely able to ensure that US foreign policy doesn’t hinge so dramatically on the whims of individual presidents – except perhaps Donald Trump.
(His remarks about his recent visit to Ireland being to stop the Brits “screwing around” were obviously inappropriate, especially in light of America’s self-appointed role as guarantor of the peace process in Northern Ireland. But that is another matter.)
Think about the move from an imperial frame of mind. If you were choosing a senior military official in America’s outremer in Europe, which would you pick: one from the eager ally which has already thrown itself into supporting Ukraine? Or one from a powerful state which has been dragging its feet?
As for the special relationship, well. This was an accurate summary of it two decades ago, and is still so now. Wallace gets passed over for NATO, and Sunak loyally urges other European nations to stump up their defence contributions. As special as it ever was.
Perhaps at some point in the future British politicians and commentators will find a way to strike a more balanced (dare I say, Gaullist?) attitude towards the United States that avoids the twin embarrassments of needy invocation of the special relationship or the somehow even needier fixation on where that bust of Churchill is or whether the President snubbed the King.
Who knows, if in years to come Washington thinks it needs to earn British loyalty, it may even consider a Brit for the secretary-generalship of NATO.