Anglosphere

Definitions of the Anglosphere vary: countries in which English is the first language of the majority of the population are shown in blue     ; other countries where English has status as an official language are shown in light blue     .

The Anglosphere is a set of English-speaking nations with similar cultural roots, based upon populations originating from the nations of the British Isles (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland), which today maintain close political and military cooperation. While the nations included in different sources vary, the Anglosphere is usually not considered to include all countries where English is an official language, although the nations that are commonly included were all once part of the British Empire.

In its most restricted sense, the term covers Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, which in the post-British Empire era maintain a close affinity of cultural, familial, and political links with one another.

Additionally, all of these countries (except Ireland) are militarily aligned under the following programs: UKUSA Agreement (signals intelligence), Five Eyes (intelligence), Combined Communications Electronics Board (communications electronics), The Technical Cooperation Program (technology and science), Air and Space Interoperability Council (air forces), AUSCANNZUKUS (navies), and ABCA Armies.

Overview

Below is a table comparing the countries of the Anglosphere. 2017 Data.

Country Population[1] Land Area (km2)[2] Density (hab./km2) GDP (Billions USD)[3] GDP per capita

(USD)[3][1]

 Capital Largest City
 United States 324,459,463 9,147,420 36.14 $19,417.144 $59,845 Washington New York City
 United Kingdom 66,181,585 241,930 272.87 $2,905.392 $43,900 London
 Canada 36,624,199 9,093,510 4.03 $1,752.910 $47,862 Ottawa Toronto
 Australia 24,450,561 7,682,300 3.21 $1,251.416 $51,181 Canberra Sydney
 Ireland 4,761,657 68,890 68.94 $343.682 $72,177 Dublin
 New Zealand 4,705,818 263,310 17.49 $186.476 $39,627 Wellington Auckland
Total 461,183,283 26,497,360 17.63 $25,857.02 $56,067 — New York City

Definitions

The term Anglosphere was first coined, but not explicitly defined, by the science fiction writer Neal Stephenson in his book The Diamond Age, published in 1995.[4] John Lloyd adopted the term in 2000 and defined it as including the United States and the United Kingdom along with English-speaking Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa and the British West Indies.[5] The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the Anglosphere as "the countries of the world in which the English language and cultural values predominate".[6][lower-alpha 1]

Proponents

The American businessman James C. Bennett, a proponent of the idea that there is something special about the cultural and legal 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.
— James C. Bennett.[7]
     Commonwealth of Nations members (all except Rwanda and Mozambique formerly parts of the British Empire)
     countries that were formerly part of the British Empire but currently not a member of the Commonwealth
     countries formerly under United States rule or influence that have adopted English as one of their main languages

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.[8]

Variable geometry of the Anglosphere, according to James Bennett (The Anglosphere Challenge)

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.[9]

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'".[10]

New Zealand historian James Belich connected patterns of growth in the industrialisation of the United States and the United Kingdom with former Dominions of the British Empire New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South Africa, and more loosely to growth in former UK constituent country Ireland, as well as British-allied Argentina, during the 19th and early to mid-20th century, in his book Replenishing the Earth. He used the term "Anglo-World" to refer to the US, UK and former Dominions, arguing that the experience and present reality of former British colonies like India, Kenya, and Jamaica differ in substantial and important ways from this core group of countries.

Criticisms

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 have been drawn 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 [Brexit] 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".[11]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "the group of countries where English is the main native language" (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (6th ed.), Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-920687-2 ).

References

Further reading

Look up anglosphere in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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