The Special Relationship (Alex Danchev)
There is still plenty to be discovered, and uncovered, in the modern history of ‘the special relationship’.
The work of a number of highly influential British Ambassadors in Washington, for example, including Roger Makins, John Freeman, Nicholas Henderson, and more recently Christopher Meyer; or British Representatives at the United Nations during major crises (Anthony Parsons during the Falklands conflict, Crispin Tickell during the Gulf conflict of 1900-91, Jeremy Greenstock during the Iraq war of 2003).
There is the full story of American support for Britain during the Falklands conflict; or latter-day collaboration in signals intelligence and missile defence; or the Anglo-American aspects of ‘the war on terror’ and the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.
There is also work to be done on the very idea of ‘specialness’ and what a special relationship really means, to the parties involved, and to others. Can it be defined or deconstructed? Comparative approaches might be fruitful here. Are there several special relationships? Or different varieties? Are some more special than others? What are the requirements? How do third parties see it (and affect it)? What is the French perspective on this Anglo-Saxon affair?
US Attitudes Towards International Humanitarian Law (Neville Wylie)
Although the United States has been at the forefront of the development of international humanitarian law, with the U.S. army’s ‘Lieber Code’ (1863) widely acknowledged as a founding document in this area of international law – U.S. attitudes towards IHL, and its application of IHL principles has not been without difficulty. This PhD would seek to contextualise the current debates on U.S. policy towards detainees, by providing a detailed investigation into U.S. conduct and policies over the last century.