The Anglosphere: A Genealogy of a Racialized Identity in International Relations

285 Pages·2011·1.843 MB·English

by  Srdjan Vucetic

The Anglosphere
The Anglosphere
A GENEALOGY OF A RACIALIZED IDENTITY
IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Srdjan Vucetic
Stanford University Press
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2011 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written
permission of Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vucetic, Srdjan
The Anglosphere : a genealogy of a racialized identity in international
relations / Srdjan Vucetic.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: Focuses on Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the
United States.
ISBN 978-0-8047-7224-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8047-7225-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. English-speaking countries—Foreign relations. 2. Group identity—
Political aspects—English-speaking countries. 3. Security, International—
International cooperation—Case studies. 4. World politics—20th century. I.
Title.
D446.V83 2011
327.0917'521—dc22 2010030488
Typeset by Thompson Type in 10/14 Minion
E-book ISBN: 978-0-8047-7769-8
To the memory of Dedo
May his love for teaching be passed along.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing is a way of interacting with many significant Others. Foremost
among those who have guided me in this writing project are Ted Hopf,
Jennifer Mitzen, and Alexander Wendt. No trio will have a greater influence
on my professional and intellectual development. I was truly lucky to have
them on my side for all these years: Without their unfailing encouragement,
there would be no book. That it isn’t better is entirely my doing. My luck
continued when Peter Katzenstein expressed interest in my manuscript; I am
very grateful for the extensive comments and criticism he offered.
I took my ideas to many conferences, workshops, and impromptu
gatherings, where I met a number of wonderful scholars, who kindly helped
me with this project. For written comments and correspondence, thanks are
due to Tarak Barkawi, Emilie Bécault, Duncan Bell, Janice Bially Mattern,
Zoltán Búzás, Bridget Coggins, Tom Dolan, Andrew Gamble, Eric
Grynaviski, Yoram Haftel, Lene Hansen, Clarissa Rile Hayward, Richard
Herrmann, Dane Imerman, Tahseen Kazi, Markus Kornprobst, Ronald Krebs,
Autumn Lockwood Payton, Tim Lücke, Kim Richard Nossal, Dorothy
Noyes, Inderjeet Parmar, Brian Pollins, John Oates, Marc O’Reilly, Thomas
Risse, James Rosenau, Stéphane Roussel, Anna Stavrianakis, Robert Vitalis,
Michael C. Williams, Byungwon Woo, Clément Wyplosz, Dvora Yanow,
and Lorenzo Zambernardi. Special mention must be made of Brendon
O’Connor, who facilitated my research in Australia in every conceivable
way. As for David Dewitt and Arthur Rubinoff, I simply cannot adequately
credit the importance of the advice I received from them over the years. In
the broadest sense, I am also indebted to all the scholars appearing in my
bibliography.
The financial burden for researching and writing this book has been shared
by several institutions. First of all, I offer a grateful thanks to the fellows,
staff, and friends of Pembroke College, Cambridge, for welcoming me to
their wonderful and unique community, and to Mr. Randall Dillard, for
having generously funded my research fellowship. At Ohio State, I received
much-appreciated research and travel grants from the Graduate School, the
Department of Political Science, the Office of International Affairs, and the
Mershon Center for International Security. A research grant from the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada was likewise
extremely helpful. As for the editing and publishing burden, my heartfelt
thanks go to Stacy Wagner, Jessica Walsh, Margaret Pinette, and the rest of
the team at Stanford University Press.
My last acknowledgment concerns my most significant Others. My old and
new families, the Vucetics, the Dunnes, and the Sahas, have been
indispensable every step of the way in this long and laborious process. All of
them, and especially my darling wife Anita, deserve my deepest gratitude.
CONTENTS
1 What Is the Anglosphere?
2 Empire, Venezuela, and the “Great Rapprochement”
3 ANZUS, Britain, and the “Pacific Pact”
4 Suez, Vietnam, and the “Great and Powerful Friends”
5 Empire, Iraq, and the “Coalition of the Willing”
6 The Anglosphere and Its Limits
Appendix: Note on Primary Sources
Notes
References
Bibliography
Index
The Anglosphere
1

WHAT IS THE ANGLOSPHERE?
The Anglo-American relies upon personal interest to accomplish
his ends, and gives free scope to the unguided strength and
common sense of the people; the Russian centers all the authority
of society in a single arm; the principal instrument of the former
is freedom; of the latter, servitude . . . each of them seems marked
out by the will of heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe.
—Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835), Vol. 1, p.
434
If the population of the English-speaking Commonwealth be
added to that of the United States with all that such co-operation
implies in the air, on the sea, all over the globe and in science
and in industry, and in moral force, there will be no quivering,
precarious balance of power to offer its temptation to ambition or
adventure. On the contrary, there will be an overwhelming
assurance of security . . . If we are together, nothing is
impossible.
—Winston Churchill, The “Iron Curtain” speech, 1946
Now Mr Churchill is starting his process of unleashing war (like
Hitler) with a racial theory, declaring that only those people who
speak English are full-bloodied nations, whose vocation it is to
control the fate of the whole world . . . Mr Churchill and his
friends in England and in America are presenting those nations
who do not speak English with a kind of ultimatum—recognize
our supremacy over you, voluntary, and all will be well—
otherwise war is inevitable.
—Stalin, a Pravda interview concerning Churchill’s
“Iron Curtain’ speech, 1946
THE ANGLO-AMERICAN “SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP” and the “Airstrip One.”
ANZUS and the “deputy sheriff.” NORAD and the “51st state.” These are
some of the many representations, official designations, and popular
caricatures of the special relationships between the United States on the one
hand and Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand on the other. The
relationship between the United States and Britain began with a revolutionary
war in the eighteenth century, in which the former violently seceded from the
latter. This germinal Anglo-American enmity is now all but forgotten, having