To Boost American Power, Lean into the Anglosphere: In his day, the Dutch-born Yale political scientist Nicholas Spykman (1893–1943) astutely observed: “Who controls the Rimland rules Eurasia [and] who rules Eurasia controls the destinies of the world.” Spykman defined the Rimland as the intermediate zone between the continental “Heartland” made famous by another strategist, Sir Halford Mackinder, and offshore islands and continents (that is, the British Isles, the Americas, Africa, and Oceania).
Spykman’s formulation articulated an essential truth about America’s security and geopolitical influence – one with great relevance today. Amid a return to sustained Great Power competition, U.S. efforts to contain the both Russia and China first require us to build a robust alliance structure capable of projecting power into Rimland.
Here, the nations that make up the Anglosphere are key. These countries – the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand – control some of the most strategic real estate on the planet.
Canada, for instance, is increasingly important to American security as the polar regions warm, the Northwest Passage becomes commercially viable, and the Arctic Circle emerges as a new theater of strategic competition and resource extraction. The UK is geographically situated to contain a Russian aerial and naval breakout into the North Atlantic. And Australia and New Zealand are the strategic backstop to the Second Island Chain in the Pacific. American forward defense in the Western Pacific depends upon them to contain the military breakout of an East Asian land power.
Unfortunately, Washington is poorly positioned to take advantage. For years, the U.S. has chronically underinvested in its relationships with countries that are some of its closest kin in cultural, legal, military, and economic terms. Still, it’s not too late for Washington to change course.
First, the Trump administration should reaffirm America’s commitment to the New Atlantic Charter signed by President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson back in 2021. President Trump’s forthcoming state visit to the UK would be an ideal occasion to underscore the historical, cultural, and geopolitical linkages between the Anglosphere nations. A greater emphasis on the fundamentals of the American alliance structure would also at least partially ameliorate the hyperreality of daily tariff threats and politics by Twitter.
Such outreach needs to be undergirded by an understanding that the Anglosphere only amplifies American power when its principals are unified. Reaffirming the New Atlantic Charter would be a tangible assurance to U.S. allies that the Trump administration seeks badly needed systemic reform of Washington’s alliance structures without the wholesale demolition of the entire Western order. Best of all, such a gesture would be both deeply symbolic and practically cost-free in terms of President Trump’s political capital.
Secondly, the Administration’s intelligence principals – Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe – should deepen intelligence sharing and institutional cooperation with their counterparts in the Five Eyes. Intelligence cooperation remains one of the enduring, tangible legacies of the original Atlantic Charter. And America’s Five Eyes partners, rooted in the Anglosphere tradition of the rule of law and personal liberty, have the ability to help the United States make better sense of an increasingly complex and interconnected global threat environment.
Thirdly, American policymakers should gradually offload some strategic responsibility for containing China to Australia and New Zealand, in addition to other regional partners such as South Korea and Japan. Washington no longer has the political will and strategic wherewithal to wage a new Cold War on multiple simultaneous fronts across Eurasia, and these countries are well positioned to pitch in. Australian and New Zealand defense spending should reach NATO norms of 2.5% and 2.0% of GDP by 2030, respectively. Both militaries should procure new warships, broaden port infrastructure in Darwin and Auckland, and invest in long-range precision-strike capabilities. These and other moves can help mitigate U.S. strategic overstretch and reduce America’s aggregate defense fiscal burden.
Spykman, the strategist, contended that “Nations which renounce the power struggle and deliberately choose impotence will cease to influence international relations either for evil or good.” For the U.S. to maintain strategic competitiveness in the return to multipolarity, a reinvigoration of neglected alliance relationships is necessary. The Anglosphere nations stand out as eminently suitable partners for this task.