A few days ago, The New Criterion and London’s Social Affairs
Unit hosted a one-day conference about the future of the “special
relationship” between Britain and the United States, with special
reference to the contributions of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in
maintaining that filiation. It was a jolly and informative convocation.
Among the participants were John O’Sullivan, a close advisor to
Margaret Thatcher, and Peter Robinson who drafted Reagan’s famous “Mr.
Gorbachev-Tear-Down-This-Wall” speech. Other paper-givers included
Daniel Hannan, a conservative, euro-sceptic member of the European
Parliament for southern England, Douglas Carswell, a eurosceptic MP for
Claxton, and Keith Windschuttle, the historian editor of Australia’s
best cultural magazine, Quadrant. If I am counting correctly,
this was the twelfth such collaboration between these two organizations.
Our stated purposed is to enhance and strengthen the transatlantic
conversation on such subjects as limited government, individual liberty,
and the the constellation of values adumbrated by the word
“Anglosphere.”
What is the Anglosphere? I’m not sure who coined the term, but it was James Bennett, another participant, whose book The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century
that gave the word currency. As the title suggests, it is an
optimistic, or at least an upbeat book. (Dr. Pangloss was an optimist,
but somehow was always a source of gloom.) If the 19th century was preeminently the British century in world affairs (and it was), the 20th
century belonged to the United States. And going forward? “If the
English-speaking nations grasp the opportunity,” Bennett wrote at the
end of his book, “the twenty-first century will be the Anglosphere
century.”
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