This article is about a group of English-speaking nations with close political and military ties and their sphere of influence. For the usage of English worldwide, seeEnglish-speaking world.
The Anglosphere, according to James Bennett (The Anglosphere Challenge)[1]
Core Anglosphere
Middle Anglosphere (English is the official language or one of multiple, but natively spoken by a minority)
Outer sphere (Officially English-using states of other language civilisations)
Periphery (states where English is widely used but is not an official governmental language)
Anglosphere countries are generally aligned with each other on global issues and collaborate extensively in matters of security, as exemplified by alliances likeFive Eyes. The core countries of the Anglosphere are eitherNATO members or designated by the United States asmajor non-NATO allies.
The Anglosphere is the Anglo-Americansphere of influence.[a] The term was first coined by the science fiction writerNeal Stephenson in his bookThe 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 theBritish West Indies.[4]James C. Bennett definesanglosphere 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] TheMerriam-Webster dictionary defines the Anglosphere as "the countries of the world in which the English language and cultural values predominate".[7][b] Similarly, recent studies describe the Anglosphere as a non-continuous region united by the concept of a transnationalimagined community, grounded in shared language, history, and cultural values.[8] However the Anglosphere is usually not considered to include all countries where English is an official language, so it is not synonymous withanglophone.[9][better source needed]
The definition is usually taken to include Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States[10] in a grouping ofdeveloped countries called thecore Anglosphere. The term Anglosphere can also include but frequently omitsIreland and theCommonwealth Caribbean countries despite their similar domestic primacy of the English language and common law.[11][12][13][14][15][4][excessive citations]
The five core countries in the Anglosphere aredeveloped countries that maintain close cultural and diplomatic links with one another. They are aligned under such military and security programmes as:[16][4][17][18]
AUKUS, a 2021 trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States focused on Australia acquiring nuclear-powered attack submarines
Due to their historic links, the Anglosphere countries share many cultural traits that still persist today. Most countries in the Anglosphere follow therule of law throughcommon law rather thancivil law, and favourdemocracy withlegislative chambers above other political systems.[34] Private property is protected by law or constitution.[35][better source needed]
The American businessmanJames C. Bennett,[39] 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 bookThe 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-speakingOceania and the English-speaking educated populations in Africa and India constitute other important nodes.[16]
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.[40]
Favourability ratings tend to be overwhelmingly positive between countries within a subset of the core Anglosphere known asCANZUK (consisting of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom),[according to whom?] whose members form part of theCommonwealth of Nations and retain Charles III as head of state. In the wake of theUnited Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union (Brexit) as a result of areferendum held in 2016, some politicians and organisations have expressed support for a loose free travel and common market area to be formed among the CANZUK countries.[44][45][46]
In 2000,Michael Ignatieff wrote in an exchange withRobert Conquest, published by theNew 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 throughregulatory harmonisation. Of Conquest's view of the Anglosphere, Ignatieff writes: "He seems to believe that Britain should eitherwithdraw 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".[47]
In 2016,Nick Cohen wrote in an article titled "It's a Eurosceptic fantasy that the 'Anglosphere' wants Brexit" forThe Spectator's Coffee House blog:"'Anglosphere' is just the right'sPC replacement for what we used to call in blunter times 'thewhite Commonwealth'."[48][49] He repeated this criticism in another article forThe Guardian in 2018.[50] Similar criticism was presented by other critics such as Canadian academic Srđan Vučetić.[51][52]
In 2018, amidst the aftermath of theBrexit referendum, two British professors of public policyMichael Kenny and Nick Pearce published a critical scholarly monograph titledShadows of Empire: The Anglosphere in British Politics (ISBN978-1509516612). In one of a series of accompanying opinion pieces, they questioned:[53]
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?
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.
^"The Anglosphere – shorthand for the Anglo-American sphere of influence – established the concept and structure of the modern transnational community.... The Anglosphere (in the narrow sense of the former British Empire, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the US) has been the architect and a staunch proponent of international norms."[3]
^Burn-Murdoch, John (17 March 2023)."The Anglosphere needs to learn to love apartment living".Financial Times.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.
^Burn-Murdoch, John (25 April 2024)."The Anglosphere has an advantage on immigration".Financial Times.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.
^Shashi Parulekar and Joel Kotkin (2012)."The State of the Anglosphere".City Journal.Particularly citizens of what some call the Anglosphere: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
^Marsh, Steve (1 June 2012). "'Global Security: US–UK relations': lessons for the special relationship?".Journal of Transatlantic Studies.10 (2):182–199.doi:10.1080/14794012.2012.678119.S2CID145271477.
^"FAOSTAT".www.fao.org.Archived from the original on 12 November 2016. Retrieved3 November 2021.
^Kidd, John B.; Richter, Frank-Jürgen (2006).Development models, globalization and economies : a search for the Holy Grail?. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN978-0230523555.OCLC71339998.
Bennett, James C. (2007).The Third Anglosphere Century: The English-Speaking World in an Era of Transition. The Heritage Foundation.ISBN978-0891952770.
Conquest, Robert; Reply by Ignatieff, Michael (23 March 2000)."The 'Anglosphere'".The New York Review of Books.47 (8). Retrieved24 July 2007.
Davies, Andrew; Dobell, Graeme; Jennings, Peter; Norgrove, Sarah; Smith, Andrew; Stuart, Nic; White, Hugh (2013).Keep calm and carry on: Reflections on the Anglosphere (Report). Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Legrand, Tim (1 December 2015). "Transgovernmental Policy Networks in the Anglosphere".Public Administration.93 (4):973–991.doi:10.1111/padm.12198.
Legrand, Tim (22 June 2016). "Elite, exclusive and elusive: transgovernmental policy networks and iterative policy transfer in the Anglosphere".Policy Studies.37 (5):440–455.doi:10.1080/01442872.2016.1188912.S2CID156577293.
Vucetic, Srdjan (2011).The Anglosphere: A Genealogy of a Racialized Identity in International Relations. Stanford University Press.ISBN978-0-8047-7224-2.
24Claimed in 1908; territory formed 1962; overlaps portions of Argentine and Chilean claims, borders not enforced but claim not renounced under theAntarctic Treaty.
Australia
Canada
New Zealand
United Kingdom
United States
