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Post-Brexit EU-UK security and defence cooperation : how and why has security and defence cooperation between the European Union and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland changed post-Brexit?
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Florence : European University Institute, 2025
EUI; STG; Master Thesis
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BASTOS GONCALVES MARTIN, Guillaume, Post-Brexit EU-UK security and defence cooperation : how and why has security and defence cooperation between the European Union and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland changed post-Brexit?, Florence : European University Institute, 2025, EUI, STG, Master Thesis - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/93830
Abstract
This study charts the changes in the treatment of security and defence cooperation between the European Union and the United Kingdom from 2016-present. The exclusion of security cooperation from negotiations of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement under the Johnson government left scholars puzzled, given the EU and the UK’s mutual interests in this area. Most studies brushed over the failure to reach a formal agreement, citing the sour tone of the negotiations by 2020 as the main barrier to cooperation. Yet the puzzle has still not been resolved. Despite mounting international pressures and reinforced common aims, formal cooperation has not materialised. As the UK and the EU prepare to meet for a Summit on security on 19 May 2025, many scholars hope that this issue will finally be resolved. However, this study finds that significant gaps in the existing body of literature have led to widespread misreadings of the situation. This study begins by exploring the reasons behind the change in the treatment of security and defence cooperation between the two parties. This study identifies the maintenance of political unity as the prime factor behind the EU and the UK’s changing positions on the matter of cooperation in the security and defence fields.
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Award date: 13 June 2025
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Nathalie Tocci (European University Institute)
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Nathalie Tocci (European University Institute)