Public Lecture on Brexit: back to the future for the UK? (Rescheduled)

You are warmly invited to this free Public Lecture on Brexit: back to the future for the UK? Thursday 7 February at 1.00pm. We are delighted Prof Richard Whitman, a key specialist on Brexit, will present this Public Lecture.

Professor Richard G. Whitman is Director of the Global Europe Centre and Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent. He is also an Associate Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House).

Brexit raises a broad set of questions for the UK on the orientation and objectives of its place within Europe and its ambitions for its wider place in
international relations.

There is no precedent for a country choosing to exit the European Union and the challenge of negotiating Brexit has been a major preoccupation for the UK over the last two years. The nature of the future relationship between the EU and the UK is currently a work in progress. This means that the consequences for the UK’s foreign and security policy of a departure from the EU are still uncertain and the full costs cannot be calculated on the basis of
any available evidence.

EU membership has been a key component of the UK’s broader diplomacy and foreign policy since 1973. Consequently Brexit presents a broader challenge in remaking the UK’s international interests and ambitions. Significant questions arise as to what will be the elements of change and what will be the aspects of continuity in the UK’s diplomacy, foreign economic policy and security alliances.

The Brexit challenge for the UK’s foreign, security and defence policy will be multidimensional. To simultaneously retool its policies towards the EU, its bilateral relationships with the remaining European member states and its broader relationships within global politics. Does this new context for Britain’s foreign policy provide new opportunity for international influence or is the UK now consigned to diminished position within global politics?