Sir Nigel Sheinwald, British ambassador to the United States, delivers a major policy address in Holmes Lounge on Friday afternoon. Sheinwald detailed the “special relationship” between the U.S. and U.K. that began during World War II.

Sir Nigel Sheinwald gave a lecture entitled “Britain and America: An Easy Commerce of Old and New” in Holmes Lounge.

The speech is one of three major policy addresses given by Sheinwald across the Midwest.

Throughout his address, the ambassador stressed that the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom would continue to adapt and evolve in changing times.

“For while [the Anglo-American relationship] is deeply rooted in shared history and shared values, it is a relationship which is oriented towards the future as much as the past,” he said.

Sheinwald’s speech drew from the intellectual and political history shared by the U.S. and the U.K. He used examples ranging from the Magna Carta to the large number of Nobel Prize winners from the U.S. and U.K. to illustrate the transatlantic “easy commerce of the best ideas, the best people and the best products.”

The ambassador specifically addressed the changing relevance of transatlantic relations to the present day and their role within China, the world’s rising new superpower.

He referred to the transatlantic culture of innovation on which China and India have modeled their universities, stressing that this tradition would continue regardless of any country’s position as the world’s superpower.

In an interview with Student Life after the speech, Sheinwald addressed the U.K.’s complex relationship with Libya and the joint approach that his country will take with the U.S. in its stance on the current crises in the Middle East.

He said that the U.K. has imposed sanctions to isolate Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and has made it increasingly difficult for Gadhafi to travel. The U.K. has also worked to remove its citizens from Libya and to provide humanitarian aid to the area.

The turmoil in Libya has impacted the crude oil market in both the U.S. and U.K. Gasoline prices in the U.S. have increased by an average of 33 cents nationwide in the past two weeks.

“If we have a change in system, by all means, we’ll continue [to maintain ties with Libya],” he told reporters. “But while the crisis is going on, you’ll have to look to other methods to decrease the oil price. Some countries might have the capacity to increase their supplies, and that’s one of the things we’ll be looking at.”

Following his address at Washington University, Sheinwald gave another policy address at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., the site of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s iconic “Iron Curtain” speech. Churchill’s address is seen as a crucial point in the beginning of the U.S.-U.K. alliance forged during World War II.

Sheinwald reflected on the changes in this “special relationship” since Churchill’s speech, saying, “Even if you’re the world’s only superpower, as the U.S. is, you need to check your bearings with other countries, you need to share strategies, you need to build coalitions….The United Kingdom tends to be the main sounding board for the U.S. in those circumstances, and that remains the case.”

Sheinwald also referred to the importance of candor in the relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. as one of the main factors in their success as allies.

“I think if you look at any aspect of our relationship, whether it is economic, national security, working together on energy, working together against terrorism, there is still a huge amount of collaboration and a huge degree of openness and candor in the relationship which exists between Britain and America,” he said.

Sheinwald’s speech was part of the T.S. Eliot lecture series, which was named in honor of the poet and grandson of Washington University co-founder William Greenleaf Eliot. As a nod to the author, Sheinwald derived the title of his speech from a line in T.S. Eliot’s poem “Little Gidding,” which speaks of the “easy commerce of old and new.”

Sheinwald has been the British ambassador to the United States since October 2007. He has also held a variety of political and diplomatic appointments, including foreign policy and defense adviser under former Prime Minister Tony Blair from 2003 to 2007.