Who would Americans say their closest ally is?

41 comments

  3. Bit of a toss-up between the UK and Canada. Crazy scenario where only one could be an ally? Canada is our “ride or die.”

  5. The five eyes nations

    UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand

    We share intel with these countries on a level beyond our other alliances

    Tier 1.5 would be Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. More or less the countries which are amenable to the US and have a mutual desire to pen in China’s expansionary tendencies in the region.

    Tier 2 – NATO as a block. Our interests don’t always align but we would go to war if the treaty required it.

    [edit]

    Tier 3 – Saudi Arabia and Israel. These relationships are much more difficult for us to navigate but we have clearly aligned ourselves with them strategically in this part of the world.

    [edit x2]

    There has been some really interesting discussion below this which I’ve found very enjoyable. If I had it to do over, I’d move some stuff around. I’m going to leave it as is for the sake of context.

  6. Top 5 in no particular order: Canada, UK, Japan, South Korea, Australia.

    Honourable mentions: New Zealand, Israel, and France.

  8. Honestly depends on the region. We are a global power and cant say that every ally will have our back in every situation.

  9. The UK has followed the United States into every absolutely idiotic foreign policy decision it has made since 9/11 so I’d say them.

  10. Japan and South Korea both share a commitment to reducing conflict in their region while contributing a significant amount to having US bases in these two host countries. France is our oldest ally, but I think they’re only after their own interests rather than that of global security. The same could be said of Australia and Canada. This is especially true of the latter. Their politicians accuse each other of being like the Americans when they’re interested in insulting their opponents. I think the UK could be considered our closest ally since we share so much between ourselves, from intelligence to hardware.

  11. Canada for sure. But if (God forbid) a land war happened in North America, I think we’d find Mexico a surprisingly resourceful ally.

  13. Canada, hands down. NORAD, sports, cultural similarities. They have our backs.

  15. UK followed closely by Australia and Canada. Canada would be number one but anti Americanism is pretty strong there.

  17. I would gladly give my life for our syrup drinking neighbors. The British fall *very* closely behind.

  18. The UK. They’ve been at our side in almost every modern major military conflict. Even Canada hasn’t always fought alongside us for things like the invasion of Iraq.

  20. First country I’d blurt out is “Britain”. Canada after that, and then (after Canada), it depends on the theater. Japan, for example, is a top-drawer ally, but I wouldn’t expect them to get involved in something involving Eastern Europe.

  21. Canada is no doubt our closest ally. The UK is our most powerful ally, but you can’t beat how close geographically, and culturally the US and Canada are

  25. Even though Canadians as people are virtually indistinguishable from Americans (at least the Anglophone ones) I’m with the people saying the UK first.

  26. The other Anglophonic countries for sure, but without a doubt I feel like Australia and NZ nudge out a bit above the others since they’ve pulled through with us the most; be it from the jungles of [Southeast Asia](https://youtu.be/WNTb9_zTvcQ) to Korea to the various theaters in the War on Terror.

    edit: reworded sentence

  27. Canada, and it’s not even close. We have the longest non-militarized border in the world because each country never worries about being invaded by the other. That has enormous value.

  28. Historically speaking, I would say France. We were both among the first countries in the world to reject monarchy in favor of republicanism, and we’ve been there for each other during our darkest times.

    In the present-day, most would probably say the UK.

  30. “The Special Relationship” —> UK. It’s the only ally that we actually have an agreed upon term to say “no other relationship is like this”.

  32. I don’t know. But the answer is unequivocally Canada. So anyone who says anything other than that is incorrect.

  34. So many other people have given informed, nuanced answers. All I can say is that attacking Canada would be like killing John Wick’s dog.

  35. Definitely Canada. We’re like sister nations. Except people seem relatively indifferent to Quebec for some reason

  36. It’s Australia and the UK

    -Australia is the only country that fought with us in Vietnam and Iraq. Common other answers like Canada and UK sat out Vietnam and in Canada’s case, both

    -Australia is the most active Western power in the anti-Beijing bloc, and even took on sanctions for it, something that most of our other allies wouldn’t risk

    UK has been making up ground recently by re-orienting their army to fit even more hand-in-glove with the US and getting more involved with the Pacific, plus taking on a forward posture in Russia.

    Canada has a bit of a protectionist streak when it comes to America, and can frustrate policy in Washington. Still an ally, but not as close as UK/Australia

    New Zealand has the Five Eyes for intel sharing but that’s more a function of their closeness to the Australians; we can’t even dock our ships in NZ due to our nuclear ambiguity

    Japan is a close US ally, and deserves to be mentioned

    France is not in lock-step with us, but considering that France is a nuclear power capable of following an independent foreign policy, they are usually pretty close to the US in foreign policy. Many of their foreign policy specialists are committed Atlanticists, and when Obama was considering a strike on Syria, France was the only one ready to join in.

    It’s less powerful than most allies I mentioned on the list, but Denmark deserves a mention as a country that’s very aligned with US policy even in areas that are not of immediate concern to it

  40. The real answer is the UK, for the following reasons:

    1. Five Eyes intelligence sharing (other Five Eyes countries are Australia, Canada and New Zealand);

    2. Common nuclear program. Ever since the UK and the US decided share their nuclear secrets in the 1940s, the UK has had access to advanced US warheads, US nuclear testing facilities, US-UK submarine reactors, submarine launched ballistic missiles (Trident) and common missile compartment (Columbia class/Dreadnought class). No other country has this level of nuclear cooperation with the US.

    3. Member of NATO;

    4. Access to virtually all US advanced weapons systems which are made available for export: F-35, Tomahawk cruise missiles, P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft, C-17 transport, ballistic missile defense radars.

    5. Close cooperation of UK and US intelligence agencies, including on signal intelligence and human asset intelligence.

    6. Historic cooperation-WWI, WWII, Cold War, Iraq I and II, Afghanistan, Global War on Terror, support of Ukraine;

    7. The Special Relationship. Obama denied it existed and preferred to work with the French, but the “special relationship”, the closest of geopolitical and military coordination of the US and UK, is real. It’s not an accident that most of the Eurasian continental players refer to US and UK geopolitical efforts as Anglo-American aggression, making no distinction between the countries. If you’re not in the club, you see both nations functioning as one on many geopolitical projects.

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