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Brexit has seen the most significant re-alignment of British foreign policy and diplomacy in more than 40 years with the elite consensus - particularly around the importance of UK-EU relations - upended under the banner of ‘Global Britain’. How fundamental are the changes to Britain’s foreign policy-making machinery and how it identifies and pursues its international priorities? And what are the implications for future UK-EU foreign policy co-operation? While existing literatures on de-Europeanisation and dis-integration offer some important insights, we lack a more granular level of analysis of the change processes at work and what they may mean for the future. Applying the theory of de-institutionalisation and its four key drivers of change - political, functional, social and the role of individuals - this article examines the extent to which post-Brexit UK foreign policy and particularly the UK-EU relationship has been altered in practice, and how this sits alongside the UK’s pledge in the Integrated Review that Europe “can always count on the UK”.
