The “Special Relationship”: How Britain and America tried and failed to run the world together, with Ian Buruma, journalist, historian and author of The Churchill Complex
In conversation with Simon KuperFranklin Roosevelt had Churchill; JFK had Harold Macmillan; Reagan had Thatcher and George W. Bush had Tony Blair. Since the Anglo-American alliance in WWII, British and American leaders have tried to band together to project their power around the world, with a declining Britain piggy-backing on the US.
But that era seems to be over. Was victory in 1945 a curse or a blessing for the future? Did Churchill’s heroic myth contribute to foolish wars? Did Trump and Brexit mark the end of the Anglo-American order? And will Biden be tough on Brexit Britain?
Ian Buruma is a Dutch-British author whose journalistic career spans the world, from Japan and China through India, most of Europe and the US. His books include The Wages of Guilt, Murder in Amsterdam, Anglomania, Year Zero , Their Promised Land and The Churchill Complex. He was awarded the Erasmus Prize in 2008 and named one of the top 100 global thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine in 2010. He lives in New York, where he teaches at Bard College..
Simon Kuper Is a columnist for the Financial Times.
