The aim of this thesis is two-fold. Firstly, using recently-released American, British, and Israeli documents, private papers, and oral evidence in addition to published work, it re-evaluates the causes and development of the Suez Crisis of 1956. Secondly, it examines the operation of the Anglo-American 'alliance' in the Middle East, if one existed, in the 1950s by considering not only the policymaking structures and personalities involved- in 'alliance' but also external factors, notably the actions of other countries, affecting relations between the American and British Governments.

This research focuses on the Nassau Agreement of 1962 and its effects on International relations. The Nassau Agreement can not be analysed however without looking at the Camp David Agreement of 1960 and the cancellation of Skybolt and the crisis that this created within British and American relations. While the Skybolt Crisis is used as a symbol of the failures of the Special Relationship the subsequent Nassau Agreement can be seen as an example of that Special Relationship in action. However the Special Relationship is just part of the complex and wide ranging story that also encompasses the Anglo-French relationship in the 1960s, the after effects of the Suez crisis, the changing nature of America’s nuclear strategy, Britain’s decline and a lack of communication between allies. The Nassau Agreement was also coloured by the context of 1962; the Cuban Missile crisis, the issues in Berlin, Communism and the Cold War. The consequences of the Nassau Agreement, the Multilateral Force, the long standing nuclear relationship between Britain and America and, to some, de Gaulle's veto of the British application to the EEC all effect how the Agreement was judged by historians, politicians and commentators alike. It is also important to look at the characters involved in the Crisis and the Agreement such as Robert McNamara and David Orsmby Gore and the relationship between Harold Macmillan and Dwight Eisenhower until 1960 and John F Kennedy there after. It is only when all of these issues and consequences are examined together can the Nassau Agreement be truly understood.

This thesis explores the continuous British interest in the American Civil War from the war’s end to the late twentieth century and the British utilisation of the conflict at home and in the Atlantic arena. Contributing to the limited, yet burgeoning literature on the subject, this study emphasises the independent agency of both the Civil War and its British interpreters. It thus rejects a simplistic depiction of British adoption of American culture and applies a more sophisticated methodology that accounts for the active, versatile and autonomous British use of complex foreign images. This enables a meaningful analysis of the Civil War’s place and role in modern British culture. The thesis examines the British fascination with the conflict as reflected in four facets: politics, military thought, academe and popular culture. Additionally, it takes a transatlantic perspective and explores how Britons’ view of the United States has influenced their understanding of the Civil War. This study thus provides a first comprehensive and coherent overview as well as a nuanced picture of the American conflict as it travelled across the Atlantic from a historically distanced perspective. The thesis reveals that the Civil War achieved unique prominence in British culture and that this British fascination with the war was part of a greater transatlantic encounter between an epic American affair and sophisticated British interpreters. Accordingly, the two main questions underpinning this study are ‘why were the British particularly interested in the Civil War?’ and, following directly on that path, ‘how did Britons use the war both at home and in the transatlantic sphere?’ Answering these questions further establishes the war’s prominence in British culture and explores the character of the British encounter with the conflict. In so doing, it contributes to our understanding of the Civil War’s global impact and casts another light on Anglo-American relations.