My Take | A desperate call for an ‘Anglosphere’ against rising China
- The idea for an alliance of English-speaking nations stems from profound weakness, not strength
The idea of an “Anglosphere” is suddenly in vogue. Not too long ago, it was the revival dream of English-speaking racists, imperialists and warmongers. Now, it has gone mainstream and respectable.
Last August, The Wall Street Journal ran a much-debated op-ed, “It’s Time to Revive the Anglosphere: The UK should form a new union with Canada, Australia and New Zealand to work as a global partner of the US”. This week, the Financial Times’ usually sensible Gideon Rachman wrote a piece titled, “Why the Anglosphere sees eye to eye on China: A group of English-speaking nations is taking a more confrontational approach to Beijing”.
The usual justification is that an Anglosphere needs to be revived – perhaps like the old British Empire? – because of the rise of an increasingly assertive, dangerous and irresponsible China. That is a good rallying cry: Blame China. That almost always works.
But that’s only a third of the story. What is almost always left unmentioned are the other subplots. One is the decline of an increasingly assertive, dangerous and irresponsible United States. The other is the rise of an increasingly independent and assertive post-Brexit European Union.
Irresponsible America