Description
Since the United Kingdom (UK)’s departure from the European Union (EU), Euro-British cooperation on security and defence appears uncertain and problematic. In the field of foreign intelligence, observers speculate about the current and future state of the relationship: the UK appears less interconnected and influential, while the EU has lost a prominent Member State at a time when its foreign policymaking relies on enhancing shared strategic intelligence.
This article approaches the EU’s intelligence framework from a network analysis perspective, in a longitudinal study that compares the UK’s ties with the EU structures before and after Brexit. It unveils how intelligence cooperation consists of a multitude of relationships on three levels: interpolity relations, interorganizational ones, and interpersonal exchanges among practitioners. Through semi-structured elite interviews with security and intelligence professionals, it explores how these ties have changed with Brexit and how trust, resilience, and the UK’s departure are understood differently on each level of interaction.
The results show how the EU’s intelligence network presents various degrees of resistance to change, depending on the level of ties under study. Each presents different priorities and needs, the understanding of which is crucial for European and British policymakers to ensure collective security. This article contends that, despite the British position appearing less central since Brexit, its informal linkages with the EU at interorganization and inter-personal level ensure that London remains an influential player in the European intelligence stage. Moreover, I argue that the proposed differentiation of ties (interpolity, interorganizational, interpersonal) would advance the application of network analysis to the field of international relations, allowing more precise predictions in terms of tie formation and network evolution.
