CANZUK in the Age of ‘America First’

For advocates of CANZUK there has, for over 70 years been a fundamental problem, in a world lead by the United States, what is the point. It is no coincidence that as American power waxed and Britain’s waned in the 1940s and 50s the idea of Imperial Federation disappeared, replaced by American cultural, economic and military hegemony within the Anglosphere. Why bind together the lesser nations of the English-speaking world when you could bind yourself to the global powerhouse, enjoy its beneficence and develop a special relationship.

In London, Ottawa and Canberra politicians of all shades chose to abandon an independent foreign policy and operate within the orbit of Washington, from Korea to Kabul, decade after decade, almost without debate or question, we accepted American leadership. Leadership which was accepted as an unqualified good in all but the most fringe circles. That was until 2016 and the first Trump Presidency exposed cracks in the idea of a liberal consensus and supposed shared worldview across the Anglosphere.

The cracks of 2016 are now gaping chasms, and politicians in Britain and even more so in Canada are discovering with alarming brutality the truth, there is no special relationship, there is no American beneficence, there is only the American empire stripped of its liberal pretensions.

The choice that confronts us, not just our political class, but every one of us, do we accept our role as nothing more than American vassals, at the mercy of Washington’s ire or do we strike a new course.

When the Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre took to the stage at the start of February, he made very clear his view, partnership with America yes, subjugation, no. Trump’s assault on the Canadian economy and his threats to Canadian sovereignty have exposed the truth, the emperor has no clothes. The age of America first, of America above all else has arrived and we must respond, we must adapt.

For a generation we have seen globalisation and tariff reduction, a process which seemed to undermine the argument for a CANZUK free trade area. Reducing it to a seeming irrelevance. Now that period is now definitively over, tariffs are back with a vengeance.

Yet for those of us who believe in CANZUK this is an opportunity, one born of adversity, but an opportunity non-the-less. The obstacle that has stood in the way of our hopes for 70 years is, put simply, removing itself. If we cannot rely on the USA we must rely upon ourselves, we must rediscover the ties that existed before the American empire and forge them anew for the 21st Century.  A new partnership that will help keep us safe, prosperous and sovereign in a rapidly changing world.

Jack Sowerby

Guest contributor and co-Chair of our predecessor organisation, Conservatives for CANZUK