“The great alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom is rooted in shared interests and shared values,” President Obama proclaimed with UK Prime Minister David Cameron by his side. “And it’s indispensable to global security and prosperity.” Indeed, the United Kingdom and United States have been the closest of allies for quite some time, nowhere more so than with defense cooperation. And the main defense arrangement binding the two allies together – the US-UK Mutual Defense Agreement (MDA) – will almost certainly be renewed by the end of 2014, problematically without democratic debate in the United Kingdom and amid uncertainties affecting both countries about international treaty obligations.

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