But one key area of cooperation is rarely mentioned - a common intelligence policy, the ties that would really bind, the ultimate test of mutual trust.
Intelligence is an essential tool of military policy-making.
But this call strikes at the heart of the UK's special relationship with the United States, and it is nowhere more special than in the field of intelligence - military, political, diplomatic and economic. GCHQ, the government's eavesdropping centre, has a symbiotic relationship with its American big brother, the US National Security Agency. The Americans give more than Britain gives in return. The alliance is spelled out in a secret UK-US treaty signed in 1948 to provide for privileged sharing of signals intelligence between the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. While France gave the UK key intelligence during the Falklands war, Washington, seeking a diplomatic solution, held back.