For Washington, that seems to be the salient question from the
formation Britain’s first coalition government in half a century, led by
Conservative David Cameron. Cameron and his Liberal Democratic partner,
Nick Clegg, disagree on a lot of foreign and security matters: whether
to move closer to the European Union, for example, or whether to replace
Britain’s nuclear-armed Trident submarines.
But on one point, they are in apparent accord: Britain’s relationship
with the United States, while still “special,” will no longer be
“slavish.” That provocative term was brought up during one of the
campaign debates by the more dovish Clegg, who said: “I think it’s
sometimes rather embarrassing the way Conservative and Labor politicians
talk in this kind of slavish way about the special relationship.” On
Wednesday it was picked up by the new foreign secretary of the
traditionally pro-American Conservatives, William Hague, who said the
relationship should be “solid but not slavish.”
So has
Britain gone wobbly on the trans-Atlantic alliance? Probably not.
As Dan Balz points out today, both >>>
