The treaty politics cannot be reduced to a winner-loser scoreboard. Britain could reduce competitive pressure, pay down debt, and focus on technology while betting that the US Congress would not fund every ton of nominal American parity. The United States still gained the status of formal equality and avoided a politically expensive construction race. The same agreement could meet different national definitions of success. Naval strategy, budgets, prestige, and continuing dialogue made the relationship more complex than a zero-sum contest.
Chapter · 2:50:38-2:53:39
Anglo-American naval treaties as non-zero-sum politics
A strategy-book reading uses the interwar naval treaties to show why Britain and the United States could both see advantage in the same settlement.