The UK, the European Union and NATO: Brexit’s unintended consequences

Abstract

The result of the UK referendum on membership of the EU has occasioned considerable debate on Britain’s international standing. An important (but so far largely overlooked) aspect of this debate is how the possibility of Brexit impacts upon NATO and, specifically, the UK’s position within the Atlantic alliance. In this connection, the initial signs are worrying. London may wish to focus on NATO as a way of compensating for a troubled exit from the EU, but its ability to do so is weakened by uncertainties over the UK defence budget (and standing as a nuclear power), a loss of credibility as a global player and the blame that will attach to it for undermining NATO cohesion. The likely upshot of Brexit will be a loss of British influence and a blow to the integrity of the alliance.

Keywords:

• European Union
• NATO
• referendum
• Brexit
• defence
• UK

Notes on contributors

David Hastings Dunn is Professor of International Politics and Director of Internationalisation for the College of Social Sciences at the University of Birmingham. A former NATO and Fulbright Fellow he has written extensively in the areas of Security Studies, Diplomacy and US Foreign and Security Policy in journals including International Affairs, The Review of International Studies, British Journal of Politics and International Relations and Diplomacy and Statecraft.

Mark Webber is Professor of International Politics and Head of the School of Government and Society at the University of Birmingham. He is the author (with Martin Smith and James Sperling) of NATO’s Post-Cold War Trajectory: Decline or Regeneration? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) and is currently writing (with Smith and Sperling) What’s Wrong with NATO and How to Fix It (to be published by Polity). His work on NATO has appeared in British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Civil Wars, European Journal of International Security, and International Affairs.