| ID | 145195 |
| Title Proper | Brexit and European security |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Heisbourg, François |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | In the narrowest of terms, European security and defence are areas in which a British exit from the European Union would have comparatively little effect. Despite the launching in 19981 by France and the United Kingdom of what soon became a European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP, subsequently the Common Security and Defence Policy or CSDP),2 Britain ceased to invest politically or military in the ESDP in any substantial manner from the Iraq crisis of 2002–03 onwards. Nor has the ESDP/CSDP developed beyond a number of generally successful but quite limited operations, including the ongoing anti-piracy mission in the Indian Ocean: it has remained stuck at a low plateau ever since the economic crisis of 2008 forced other matters to the top of the EU’s agenda. The UK has pointedly disassociated itself from any broader European dimension, focusing instead on the strong and strictly bilateral relationship built with France in the field of conventional and nuclear defence since the signing of the Lancaster House treaties in 2010.3 Unlike the single market or other areas in which sovereignty is shared with the European institutions, defence and security are not caught in a complex web of intertwined national and supranational competences. There is no European omelette here to unscramble in case of a ‘Brexit’. |
| `In' analytical Note | Survival : the IISS Quarterly Vol. 58, No.3; Jun-Jul 2016: p.13-22 |
| Journal Source | Survival Vol: 58 No 3 |
| Key Words | European Union ; United Kingdom ; Brexit |