INTRODUCTION

The vote to leave the EU has set in train a series of profound changes to more than just the political economy of the UK: it is an oft-repeated mistake to assume that Brexit is about Britain alone. It is about far more. The vote immediately changed the nature of the EU’s relations with the UK, and foreshadows a much deeper change that will shape Britain and Europe once a new relationship – both formal and informal outside the EU – emerges. The vote has also triggered changes within the EU, an often-overlooked aspect of the Brexit debate, which it will be vital to understand. An EU that is different to what we know today, could be the most profound outcome of the Brexit vote. In addition, the vote means a change to the geopolitics of Europe by potentially changing both the UK and the EU and their position within a wider European political network. The vote means one of the core European members of the transatlantic relationship – the UK is its largest and leading European proponent – will no longer be a member of Europe’s predominant organization for politics, economics, social and non-traditional security matters.

This raises a series of questions in the USA about the US–UK, US–EU and US–European/NATO relationships. The vote itself, like that of the election of Donald Trump, was viewed as a weathervane of Western political debate, with the outcome seen by some as a sign of a wider and growing rejection of some of the ideas that have defined European politics, transatlantic relations and international relations since 1989: notably a liberal internationalist agenda of sharing sovereignty and viewing globalization and integration as a force for good. Finally, as an unprecedented development for the EU – a sui generis organization – the vote raises questions about the nature of European integration and whether the march towards ever-deeper integration has been taken for granted by both policy-makers and academics.

To look at this debate in more detail this chapter examines four topics. They revolve around the 13 Brexit negotiations and debates that are now unfolding in the UK, Europe and elsewhere (Oliver 2016).