The Anglosphere, also known as the Anglo-American world, [2] is the Anglo-American sphere of influence, with a core group of nations that today maintain close political, diplomatic and military co-operation. While the nations included in different sources vary, the Anglosphere is usually not considered to include all countries where English is an official language, so it is not synonymous with the sphere of anglophones, though commonly included nations are those that were formerly part of the British Empire and retained the English language and English common law.
The five core countries of the Anglosphere are usually taken to be Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries enjoy close cultural and diplomatic links with one another and are aligned under military and security programmes such as Five Eyes.
The Anglosphere is the Anglo-American sphere of influence. [lower-alpha 1] The term was first coined by the science fiction writer Neal Stephenson in his book The Diamond Age , published in 1995. John Lloyd adopted the term in 2000 and defined it as including English-speaking countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, and the British West Indies. [4] James C. Bennett defines anglosphere as "the English-speaking Common Law-based nations of the world", [5] arguing that former British colonies that retained English common law and the English language have done significantly better than counterparts colonised by other European powers. [6] The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the Anglosphere as "the countries of the world in which the English language and cultural values predominate". [7] [lower-alpha 2] However the Anglosphere is usually not considered to include all countries where English is an official language, so it is not synonymous with anglophone. [8] [ better source needed ]
The definition is usually taken to include Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States [9] in a grouping of developed countries called the core Anglosphere. The term Anglosphere can also more widely encompass Ireland, Malta and the Commonwealth Caribbean countries. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [4] [ excessive citations ]
The five core countries in the Anglosphere are developed countries that maintain close cultural and diplomatic links with one another. They are aligned under such military and security programmes as: [15] [4] [16] [17]
Relations have traditionally been warm between Anglosphere countries, with bilateral partnerships such as those between Australia and New Zealand, the United States and Canada and the United States and the United Kingdom (the Special Relationship) constituting the most successful partnerships in the world. [18] [19] [20]
In terms of political systems, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have Charles III as head of state, form part of the Commonwealth of Nations and use the Westminster parliamentary system of government. Most of the core countries have first-past-the-post electoral systems, though Australia and New Zealand have reformed their systems and there are other systems used in some elections in the UK. As a consequence, most core Anglosphere countries have politics dominated by two major parties.
Below is a table comparing the five core countries of the Anglosphere (data for 2022/2023):
Country | Population | Land area (km2) [21] | GDP Nominal (USD bn) [22] | GDP PPP (USD bn) [22] | GDP PPP per capita (USD) [23] | National wealth PPP (USD bn) [24] [23] [25] | Military spending PPP (USD bn) [26] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Australia | 26,009,249 [27] | 7,692,020 | 1,707 | 1,718 | 65,366 | 7,661 | 22.0 |
Canada | 38,708,793 [28] | 9,984,670 | 2,089 | 2,385 | 60,177 | 9,971 | 23.3 |
New Zealand | 5,130,623 [29] | 262,443 | 251 | 278 | 54,046 | 1,229 | 3.1 |
United Kingdom | 67,081,234 [30] | 241,930 | 3,158 | 3,846 | 56,471 | 16,208 | 70.2 |
United States | 332,718,707 [31] | 9,833,520 | 26,854 | 26,854 | 80,035 | 114,932 | 734.3 |
Core Anglosphere | 469,648,606 | 27,329,350 | 34,059 | 28,115 | 65,700 | 150,001 | 852.9 |
... as % of World | 5.9% | 18.4% | 32.3% | 20% | 3.3× | 24.9% | 32.9% |
Due to their historic links, the Anglosphere countries share many cultural traits that still persist today. Most countries in the Anglosphere follow the rule of law through common law rather than civil law, and favour democracy with legislative chambers above other political systems. [32] Private property is protected by law or constitution. [33] [ better source needed ]
Market freedom is high in the five core Anglosphere countries, as all five share the Anglo-Saxon economic model – a capitalist model that emerged in the 1970s based on the Chicago school of economics with origins from the 18th century United Kingdom. [34] The shared sense of globalisation led cities such as New York, London, Los Angeles, Sydney, and Toronto to have considerable impacts on the international markets and the global economy. [35] Global popular culture has been highly influenced by the United States and the United Kingdom. [33] [ better source needed ]
Proponents of the Anglosphere concept typically come from the political right (such as Andrew Roberts of the UK Conservative Party), and critics from the centre-left (for example Michael Ignatieff of the Liberal Party of Canada).
As early as 1897, Albert Venn Dicey proposed an Anglo-Saxon "intercitizenship" during an address to the Fellows of All Souls at Oxford. [36]
The American businessman James C. Bennett, [37] a proponent of the idea that there is something special about the cultural and legal (common law) traditions of English-speaking nations, writes in his 2004 book The Anglosphere Challenge:
The Anglosphere, as a network civilization without a corresponding political form, has necessarily imprecise boundaries. Geographically, the densest nodes of the Anglosphere are found in the United States and the United Kingdom. English-speaking Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and English-speaking South Africa (who constitute a very small minority in that country) are also significant populations. The English-speaking Caribbean, English-speaking Oceania and the English-speaking educated populations in Africa and India constitute other important nodes. [15]
Bennett argues that there are two challenges confronting his concept of the Anglosphere. The first is finding ways to cope with rapid technological advancement and the second is the geopolitical challenges created by what he assumes will be an increasing gap between anglophone prosperity and economic struggles elsewhere. [38]
British historian Andrew Roberts claims that the Anglosphere has been central in the First World War, Second World War and Cold War. He goes on to contend that anglophone unity is necessary for the defeat of Islamism. [39]
According to a 2003 profile in The Guardian , historian Robert Conquest favoured a British withdrawal from the European Union in favour of creating "a much looser association of English-speaking nations, known as the 'Anglosphere'". [40] [41]
Favourability ratings tend to be overwhelmingly positive between countries within a subset of the core Anglosphere known as CANZUK (consisting of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom),[ according to whom? ] whose members form part of the Commonwealth of Nations and retain Charles III as head of state. In the wake of the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union (Brexit) as a result of a referendum held in 2016, there has been mounting political and popular support for a loose free travel and common market area to be formed among the CANZUK countries. [42] [43] [44]
In 2000, Michael Ignatieff wrote in an exchange with Robert Conquest, published by the New York Review of Books , that the term neglects the evolution of fundamental legal and cultural differences between the US and the UK, and the ways in which UK and European norms drew closer together during Britain's membership in the EU through regulatory harmonisation. Of Conquest's view of the Anglosphere, Ignatieff writes: "He seems to believe that Britain should either withdraw from Europe or refuse all further measures of cooperation, which would jeopardize Europe's real achievements. He wants Britain to throw in its lot with a union of English-speaking peoples, and I believe this to be a romantic illusion". [45]
In 2016, Nick Cohen wrote in an article titled "It's a Eurosceptic fantasy that the 'Anglosphere' wants Brexit" for The Spectator's Coffee House blog: "'Anglosphere' is just the right's PC replacement for what we used to call in blunter times 'the white Commonwealth'." [46] [47] He repeated this criticism in another article for The Guardian in 2018. [48] Similar criticism was presented by other critics such as Canadian academic Srđan Vučetić. [49] [50]
In 2018, amidst the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, two British professors of public policy Michael Kenny and Nick Pearce published a critical scholarly monograph titled Shadows of Empire: The Anglosphere in British Politics ( ISBN 978-1509516612). In one of a series of accompanying opinion pieces, they questioned: [51]
The tragedy of the different national orientations that have emerged in British politics after empire—whether pro-European, Anglo-American, Anglospheric or some combination of these—is that none of them has yet been the compelling, coherent and popular answer to the country's most important question: How should Britain find its way in the wider, modern world?
They stated in another article: [52]
Meanwhile, the other core English-speaking countries to which the Anglosphere refers, show no serious inclination to join the UK in forging new political and economic alliances. They will, most likely, continue to work within existing regional and international institutions and remain indifferent to – or simply perplexed by – calls for some kind of formalised Anglosphere alliance.
British English is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to the collective dialects of English throughout the British Isles taken as a single umbrella variety, for instance additionally incorporating Scottish English, Welsh English, and Northern Irish English. Tom McArthur in the Oxford Guide to World English acknowledges that British English shares "all the ambiguities and tensions [with] the word 'British' and as a result can be used and interpreted in two ways, more broadly or more narrowly, within a range of blurring and ambiguity".
Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term Anglosphere. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British descent in Anglo-America, the Anglophone Caribbean, South Africa, Namibia, Australia, and New Zealand. It is used in Canada to differentiate between French-speaking Canadians (Francophones), located mainly in Quebec but found across Canada, and English-speaking Canadians (Anglophones), also located across Canada, including in Quebec. It is also used in the United States to distinguish the Latino population from the non-Latino white majority.
Anglo-America most often refers to a region in the Americas in which English is the main language and British culture and the British Empire have had significant historical, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural impact. This includes the United States, most of Canada, and some Caribbean countries. Anglo-America is distinct from Latin America, a region of the Americas where Romance languages are prevalent. The adjective is commonly used, for instance, in the phrase "Anglo-American law", a concept roughly coterminous with Common Law.
Anglo-Americans are a demographic group in Anglo-America. It typically refers to the predominantly European-descent nations and ethnic groups in the Americas that speak English as a native language, making up the majority of people in the world who speak English as a first language.
The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the largest language by number of speakers, the third largest language by number of native speakers and the most widespread language geographically. The countries in which English is the native language of most people are sometimes termed the Anglosphere. Speakers of English are called Anglophones.
The Imperial Federation was a series of proposals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to create a federal union to replace the existing British Empire, presenting it as an alternative to colonial imperialism. No such proposal was ever adopted, but various schemes were popular in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and other colonial territories. The project was championed by Unionists such as Joseph Chamberlain as an alternative to William Gladstone's proposals for home rule in Ireland.
Imperial Preference was a system of mutual tariff reduction enacted throughout the British Empire as well as the then British Commonwealth following the Ottawa Conference of 1932. As Commonwealth Preference, the proposal was later revived in regard to the members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Joseph Chamberlain, the powerful colonial secretary from 1895 until 1903, argued vigorously that Britain could compete with its growing industrial rivals and thus maintain Great Power status. The best way to do so would be to enhance internal trade inside the worldwide British Empire, with emphasis on the more developed areas — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa — that had attracted large numbers of British settlers.
The Five Eyes (FVEY) is an Anglosphere intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries are party to the multilateral UK-USA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence. Informally, "Five Eyes" can refer to the group of intelligence agencies of these countries. The term "Five Eyes" originated as shorthand for a "AUS/CAN/NZ/UK/US EYES ONLY" (AUSCANNZUKUS) releasability caveat.
ABCANZ Armies is a program aimed at optimizing interoperability and standardization of training and equipment between the armies of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, plus the United States Marine Corps and the Royal Marines. Established in 1947 as a means to capitalize on close cooperation between the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada during World War II, the program grew to include Australia and New Zealand.
Exceptionally strong relations exist between the Commonwealth realms of Australia and the United Kingdom, marked by historical, cultural, institutional, extensive people-to-people links, aligned security interests, sporting tournaments, and significant trade and investment co-operation.
The British diaspora consists of people of English, Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish, Cornish, Manx and Channel Islands ancestral descent who live outside of the United Kingdom and its Crown Dependencies.
The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common ancestry, history, and culture. The English identity began with the Anglo-Saxons, when they were known as the Angelcynn, meaning race or tribe of the Angles. Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who invaded Britain around the 5th century AD.
British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, by descent from British nationals. When used in a historical context, "British" or "Britons" can refer to the Ancient Britons, the Celtic-speaking inhabitants of Great Britain during the Iron Age, whose descendants formed the major part of the modern Welsh people, Cornish people, Bretons and considerable proportions of English people. It also refers to citizens of the former British Empire, who settled in the country prior to 1973, and hold neither UK citizenship nor nationality.
The Five Nations Passport Group is an international forum for the passport-issuing authorities of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States to share best practices in the issuance, development, and management of passports. The annual Five Nations Passport Conference is a largely informal in-person meeting between officials of the participating agencies, with some additional invited guests such as the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2011. It has taken place since at least as far back as 2004.
Commonwealth free trade is the process or proposal of removing barriers of trade between member states of the Commonwealth of Nations. The preferential trade regime within the British Empire continued in some form amongst Commonwealth nations under the Imperial Preference system, until that system was dismantled after World War II due to changes in geopolitics and the pattern of global trade, and the United Kingdom's entry into the European Economic Community. The idea of promoting renewed inter-Commonwealth trade emerged in the late 20th century as a response to the evolution of the global economy. At one extreme, proposals have been raised for the creation of a multilateral free trade area comprising all member states of the Commonwealth of Nations.
CANZUK International is an international advocacy organisation which aims to achieve the free movement of citizens, free trade agreements and foreign policy cooperation between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom through intergovernmental action and the formation of a proposed diplomatic alliance known as CANZUK. The organisation aims to achieve similar free movement and trade arrangements that exist under the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement and the Closer Economic Relations trade agreement between Australia and New Zealand, with Canada and the United Kingdom eventually joining these arrangements.
Migration 5 is a conference of the immigration authorities of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The five countries work together to "enhance the integrity, security and efficiency of their immigration and border services" including the sharing of certain overseas visa application centres.
CANZUK is an acronym for a proposed alliance comprising Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom as part of an international organisation or confederation similar in scope to the former European Economic Community. This includes increased trade, foreign policy co-operation, military co-operation and mobility of citizens between the four states, tied together by similar economic systems, social values and political and legal systems, in addition to the majority population of each country speaking English. The idea is lobbied by the advocacy group CANZUK International and supported primarily by conservatives. Other supporters include think tanks such as the Adam Smith Institute, the Henry Jackson Society, Bruges Group and politicians from the four countries.
Anglo-Saxonism is a cultural belief system developed by British and American intellectuals, politicians, and academics in the 19th century. Racialized Anglo-Saxonism contained both competing and intersecting doctrines, such as Victorian era Old Northernism and the Teutonic germ theory which it relied upon in appropriating Germanic cultural and racial origins for the Anglo-Saxon "race".
Forty years ago, the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland had roughly 400 homes per 1,000 residents, level with developed continental European countries. Since then the two groups have diverged, the Anglosphere standing still while western Europe has pulled clear to 560 per 1,000.
But a striking pattern emerges when you look at where these different impacts are clustered: almost everything looks better in Anglophone countries. Immigrants and their offspring in the UK, US and so on tend to be more skilled, have better jobs and often out-earn the native-born, while those in continental Europe fare worse. In terms of the fiscal impact, immigrants pay more in than they get out in the US, UK, Australia and Ireland, but are net recipients in Belgium, France, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Particularly citizens of what some call the Anglosphere: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
an Anglosphere of Britain, Ireland (sometimes), the British Commonwealth and above all the United States.
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