Description
The article investigates how the considerations on Brexit-related de-/re-engagement in the context of the UK-EU security relationship (Martill and Sus 2021; Sweeney and Winn 2021) have been discursively (re)presented in a public domain by the UK government and the EU institutions (especially the European Commission and the European Parliament). Taking the discourse-analytical perspective (Reisigl and Wodak 2001; Wodak 2011) and working with a qualitative dataset of official pronouncements vis-à-vis the UK-EU security relationship, the study surveys the communicative treatment of the de-/re-engagement during three key phases: 1) the withdrawal process (2016-2019); 2) the transition period (2020); 3) post-transition period (since 2021), thereby allowing for temporal comparisons. By doing so, the inquiry provides critical insights into how the key actors have made sense of the Brexit de-/re-engagement and legitimised, through language, their perspectives thereof in a bid to shape the impact of Brexit in this policy field.
