BLUF: The Kings Speech
Two hundred and fifty years after the United States declared independence from a British king, the current monarch from the United Kingdom stood before a joint session of Congress to commemorate the occasion. The irony was not lost this week on King Charles III, who acknowledged that despite a rocky start, the "special relationship" between our two nations endures. In his own words: "Ours is a partnership born out of dispute, but no less strong for it."
It was an eloquent observation, and a timely one. US-UK relations have hit a nadir in the wake of Operation Epic Fury, which might have compelled the King to make the trip stateside at this particular moment (President Trump has never disguised his fondness for the Royals). But for all the noise on both sides of the Atlantic, King Charles had a point: despite our disagreements, we need each other in more ways than we often appreciate, especially when it comes to shared security.
Consider Britain's nuclear submarine base at Faslane, just down the Clyde from Glasgow in Scotland. Beyond serving as a cornerstone of the US-UK nuclear deterrent against Russia, the base is a critical anchor in the GIUK Gap – the strategic chokepoint that constrains Moscow's ability to operate submarines freely in the North Atlantic. It matters, enormously.
Which is why, while you were watching the King's speech and the White House state dinner (hosted in the same building Charles’ predecessor burned to the ground in 1814…we're still not over it), you may have missed something important. Scotland heads to the polls next week in an election with real consequences for that shared security architecture.
The Scottish National Party (SNP), which has governed Scotland's devolved Parliament since 2007, is polling on the cusp of winning an outright majority. Should it secure that majority on May 7th, the SNP has pledged to pursue another independence referendum (fewer fireworks than 1776, but consequential nonetheless), throwing the future of Faslane and the UK's nuclear-submarine deterrent into doubt. Were those doubts to be realized, the consequences would deal a significant blow to American and British strategic interests in the Atlantic and beyond.
So as Americans, and even the King of Great Britain himself, gather to celebrate our independence from the Crown, the transatlantic security community will be holding its breath to see whether we may soon be marking yet another independence day.
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