does not mean
             these factors are unimportant, just that they would be insufficient in
             themselves to sustain the relationship as a geopolitical reality). The
             analysis that follows examines the development of the Anglo-American
             relationship since the Second World War within the terms of this analysis;
             it also seeks to argue that on balance the relationship has been beneficial
             to both parties, with particular emphasis on the benefits it has brought
             the United Kingdom. In summary, the argument here is that from the British
             point of view America has been far more the friendly big brother' than the
             The massive United States commitment of finance, materiel and human
             effort to winning the Second World War dwarfed, in terms of simple
             magnitude, Britain's war effort (although in relation to Britain's own size
             and resources, of course, her own effort was total and all-consuming); this
             fact alone indicated from the outset that the special relationship was
             never going to be a partnership of equals. Churchill may have thought in
             terms of the restoration of the Empire and a re-establishment of Great
             Britain as a great power after the war, but the reality was, as the former
             British Prime Minister A. J. Balfour commented in August 1945, that the
             United States expected Britain to take her place as junior partner in an
             orbit of power primarily under American aegis.'[4] The wealth and power of
             the United States meant that Anglo-American relationship was intrinsically
             always going to be characterized by a radical asymmetry of power'[5] and
             that imbalance has characterized all interaction between the United States
             and the United Kingdom from 1945 to 2004. This situation poses particular
             problems for British political leaders, who need to fulfil their
             commitments to their American allies reliably and effectively without
             seeming to be simply a poodle' for US interests. In those cases where the
             ...