Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s welcome decision to cut the tech giant Huawei out of Britain’s 5G network and China’s sabre-rattling against Canada and Australia are just the most recent developments pushing the Canzuk idea into the realm of practical politics. Others include the projected Anglo-Australian post-Brexit free trade deal and the new multibillion-dollar Type 26 frigate program, which has buy-in from Britain, Canada and Australia. There has also long existed an array of multilateral working groups and committees among the four countries, mostly for defense and security matters but also on issues like industrial standards.
The Canzuk countries have not just a common majority language but a common legal system, a common parliamentary and political tradition, a common military structure and tradition and a common head of state in Queen Elizabeth II. They are, moreover, racially diverse, multicultural countries with a long history of working together, including the period when their military collaboration was, in 1940-41, the sole force on the planet that resisted Nazi totalitarianism. All they lack is geographic proximity, which in the era of the internet and post-Covid renewed air travel is no longer the insuperable barrier it once was.
There is no reason why the American taxpayer should pick up the bill of being the world’s policeman forever, and an intimate alliance with Canzuk would provide welcome relief. The cost of curbing and containing China’s global ambitions would become the historic role of not one but two superpowers, as it is clear that the EU has no interest in trying to stop Chinese hegemony in Asia. A strong, prosperous Canzuk Union would make the Anglosphere a force-multiplier in a more uncertain world.
“Provided that every effort is made, that nothing is kept back,” Winston Churchill told a joint session of Congress in Washington on Dec. 26, 1941, “that the whole manpower, brainpower, virility, valor and civic virtue of the English-speaking world, with all its galaxy of loyal, friendly or associated communities and states—provided that is bent unremittingly to the simple but supreme task, I think it would be reasonable to hope that the end of 1942 will see us quite definitely in a better position than we are now.” He was right; by the end of 1942 American forces had landed in North Africa and were joining hands with allies from the Anglosphere to liberate that continent from the Axis powers.
The old and enduring loyalty, friendship and association among the various English-speaking communities and states has evolved over time, to meet changing circumstances and to seize opportunities. The communities should look to strengthen institutional ties, and create new ones, for the benefit of each of them, and of the world.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/its-tim...re-11596859260