When politics trumps strategy: UK–EU security collaboration after Brexit
| Author | Monika Sus,Benjamin Martill |
| Published date | 01 June 2022 |
| Date | 01 June 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/01925121211003789 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/01925121211003789
International Political Science Review
2022, Vol. 43(3) 404 –417
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/01925121211003789
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When politics trumps
strategy: UK–EU security
collaboration after Brexit
Benjamin Martill
School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, UK
Monika Sus
Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
Abstract
Both the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) have significant incentives for close collaboration
in foreign, security and defence policies, given their shared strategic interests, the clear potential for efficiency
savings in working together, and the intensity of prior working relations. That the recently negotiated EU–
UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement contains no provisions in this area is thus puzzling for followers of
European security, who predicted prompt agreement, and for theories of international cooperation, which
emphasise the importance of shared threats, absolute gains and prior interaction. We argue the failure to
reach such an agreement stemmed from the politics of the withdrawal process itself, which resulted in acute
problems of institutional selectivity, negotiating dynamics that polarised the relationship, institutional change
that made an agreement less likely, and distributional scrabbling to supplant the UK. Our findings show that
the dynamics of moving away from existing forms of cooperation are highly distinct from those motivating
cooperation in normal times.
Keywords
Brexit, Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), European security, Permanent Structured
Cooperation (PESCO), UK–EU relationship
Introduction
Brexit – the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) – has been the
subject of much interest, not least given the implications for European integration, for British poli-
tics, and for the prospects of international economic cooperation more broadly. While Brexit was
highly disruptive economically, initial talk of its implications for security and defence cooperation
Corresponding author:
Benjamin Martill, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, Chrystal Macmillan Building, 15a George
Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL, UK.
Email: benjamin.martill@ed.ac.uk
1003789IPS0010.1177/01925121211003789International Political Science ReviewMartill and Sus
research-article2021
Special Issue: The Brexit Effect
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