Britain’s fair-weather friendship is failing the US again

For more than a century, the U.S. and the United Kingdom have spoken proudly of our “special relationship.” It is a phrase meant to capture the shared language, values and sacrifices that have bound our nations together through history. But a special relationship carries obligations. 

As much as I and most Americans love the British, America only rarely calls on them. Now, when America has called for help in Iran, after much arm-twisting and persuasion, Britain is providing only token assistance, permitting use of British military bases for defensive purposes only. More recently, the U.S. asked the U.K. to help defend global shipping and energy supplies moving through the Strait of Hormuz. Britain has offered limited assistance in the waterway, sending one warship only after its Diego Garcia territory was threatened by missiles from Iran.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also made clear that the United Kingdom will “not be drawn into the wider war.” That hesitation should trouble every American who remembers the history of this alliance.

King Charles will travel to the U.S. in late April to meet with President Trump to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary. But can that smooth over differences between the two allies? Royal pageantry is no substitute for standing beside America when it matters.

In the last century alone, the U.S. came to Britain’s aid in three great struggles that shaped the fate of the free world. American blood was shed on European soil in two world wars. American power also helped defend Europe throughout the Cold War. American taxpayers have spent trillions sustaining the military architecture that protects the Western alliance. 

How many Americans have lost their lives defending a world order that Britain itself depends upon? The answer is not small. 

And yet now, in a moment when the U.S. is asking allies for modest support — ships in the Strait of Hormuz, participation in an international coalition, a visible sign of solidarity — Britain has chosen caution. That is not what a special relationship looks like. 

American capital has flowed into Britain for generations. During World War I alone, London borrowed billions from the U.S. and ultimately suspended repayment during the Great Depression, leaving that debt unresolved to this day. During World War II, American aid helped rescue Britain’s shattered economy, stabilizing our closest ally through lend-lease.

Culturally, our ties run deep. We gave Britain its greatest wartime leader and perhaps its greatest leader — Winston Churchill, whose mother, Jennie Jerome, was born and raised in New York City. The great transatlantic story is woven into the lives of our people.

But friendship must mean something when it matters. It cannot be of the fair-weather variety.

Today the world faces a dangerous regime in Tehran. The ayatollahs ruling Iran have made their ambitions unmistakably clear: destabilize the Middle East, threaten global commerce and spread violence through proxies across the region. These are not ordinary geopolitical adversaries. Tehran’s ideology and dangerous fanaticism resemble what the world confronted in Nazi Germany. 

Britain, of all nations, should understand what is at stake. It was a British prime minister who returned from Munich waving a piece of paper, promising “peace for our time.” The British people paid dearly for that illusion. I look at the regime in Tehran, with its pursuit of nuclear weapons and its open contempt for the international order, and wonder that a nation that once lived through such darkness seems hesitant to recognize it now.

This is not a moment for hesitation, and personal views about an American president are beside the point. This war — and the stability of the global system it threatens — is bigger than any one political leader.

The U.S. is protecting the arteries of global commerce — the energy supplies that power economies, the maritime routes that keep international trade alive and in particular the Strait of Hormuz, through which Britain draws much of its own oil. America is doing what it has done for generations: bearing the greatest burden to defend the free world. Now it is time for Britain to prove that the special relationship still means something. 

Nearing the 250th anniversary of our independence — nearly two and a half centuries — America has grown from a young republic into the defender of democratic nations across the globe. We did not seek that role — history gave it to us. And time and again the U.S. has answered the call. 

If Britain wishes to keep sharing the protection of that system, it must also share its responsibilities. No fair-weather friends. 

Earle Mack is a former U.S. ambassador to Finland.