London and Washington Jointly Prepare for Permanent War

As NATO’s Ukraine Contact group met again last week at Germany’s Ramstein Air Base, pledging to continue the war against Russia, the intelligence chiefs of the United States and United Kingdom jointly affirmed their commitment to coordinate their efforts in an unprecedented fashion: co-authoring an op-ed for the Sept. 7 issue of the Financial Times (FT), followed by a joint public appearance at the FT Weekend Festival in London. MI6 chief Sir Richard Moore and his counterpart, CIA Director William Burns, wrote in their op-ed that both countries “face an unprecedented array of threats”.

They warned “that the international world order – the balanced system that has led to relative peace and stability and delivered rising living standards, opportunities and prosperity – is under threat in a way we haven’t seen since the cold war.” They pointed to the “rise of China” as “the principal intelligence and geopolitical challenge of the 21st century”, along with Russia, insisting that it “is more vital than ever” to resist Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

In a joint interview conducted by the editor of the FT later that day, Burns warned of the “troubling” defense relationship between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. This is in line with the report in the New York Times on Aug. 20 that the U.S. has adopted a new nuclear doctrine of preparing for a three-front nuclear war with Russia, China and North Korea.

Further, the FT reported five days earlier that the two nations are about to revise their existing Mutual Defense Agreement (MDA) — which joins the two countries’ nuclear weapons programs at the hip — to extend it indefinitely without requiring renewal every 10 years. This would make the MDA a treaty of the United States, bypassing the approval by the U.S. Senate of any treaty, as the Constitution requires. According to David Cullen, director of the U.K. think tank Nuclear Information Service, “Putting the [U.S.-U.K.] nuclear-sharing arrangements on a permanent footing is quite a substantial change in their relationship”. He added that it “provides a permanent underpin to the modernization of the U.K.’s nuclear deterrent,” while also locking in “cooperation over AUKUS,” the nuclear sub cooperation agreement with Australia, to counter China.

British Prime Minister Starmer presented the amended MDA to the Parliament on July 26, and President Biden sent a letter to the Congress for ratification of the agreement two days later. The two will undoubtedly discuss this “special relationship” during the PM’s visit to the White House on Sept. 13.