Abstract
AbstractAlthough Brexit had its short-term roots in economic and constitutional legitimation issues, it cannot be explained without considering the European geopolitical space, the EU's contrasting political formations in the security and economic spheres, and the fault lines these produce. Seen from a long-term geopolitical perspective, there have been recurrent problems in Britain's efforts to deal with the EU and its predecessors, and persistent patterns of crisis. The geopolitical environment, especially around NATO and energy security in the Middle East, first rendered non-membership of the EEC a problem, then made entry impossible for a decade, helped make EU membership politically very difficult for British governments to sustain, and then constrained the May governments’ Article 50 negotiations. These problems have a singularly British shape, but they cannot be separated from more general fault lines in the European geopolitical space.
Highlights
Brexit had its short-term roots in economic and constitutional legitimation issues, it cannot be explained without considering the European geopolitical space, the European Union (EU)’s contrasting political formations in the security and economic spheres, and the fault lines these produce
British governments faced persistent difficulties around the EU and its predecessors generated by the European geopolitical space
In part these predicaments arose from the structural fault lines around military and energy security that have run straight through from the late 1940s
Summary
To treat geopolitics as more than a shorthand for ‘high’ international politics, it must be conceptualized. For any individual EU state, the structural impact of the European geopolitical space – its borders and relationship to the North Atlantic, Russia, Turkey and the Middle East – is strongly conditioned by their geographical position, their past relationship to the former Soviet and Ottoman imperial presence in Europe, from whom they import oil and gas, their membership or not of NATO, and for NATO members their military importance within the alliance These long-term realities do not rule out domestic political contest over geopolitical strategy, but they do create ongoing choices around a set of predicaments that must be. In a harbinger of the trouble this issue would eventually bring to membership, the Heath government abandoned sterling’s participation in the Snake in the Tunnel, which pegged the EC currencies against each other so that they moved together against the dollar, before accession even took place
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