Nigeria, March 11 -- For more than eighty years, Washington and London have boasted of a special relationship. A phrase made famous by Winston Churchill during the Second World War, it conjures images of shared battles, secret intelligence, and a transatlantic bond that seemed unbreakable. Churchill used it to signal a connection that went beyond treaties. It was a promise that London and Washington would stand together no matter the cost.

Yet history reminds us that alliances are less about romance and more about necessity. Recent tensions between Donald Trump and Keir Starmer prove it. The special relationship is not immune to disagreement, personality clashes, or differing national interests.

The spark was military action in the Mid...