Description
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine caused in all European countries “a process of rethinking national defense and the national role in European security” (Johansson-Nogués, Ojanen and Zardo, forthcoming). For the UK, ‘freshly Brexited’ at the time of the invasion, this has meant a simultaneous re-pivot to the European continent and the necessity to reshape the relationship with a European Union it is no longer part of.
This article examines how the UK has engaged with various European security forums on four key areas of foreign security: sanctions, intelligence sharing, defence-industrial cooperation and space infrastructure. These case studies, pivotal to the international response to Russia’s aggression, highlight two levels of Euro-British interdependence: the first regarding knowledge and information, and the second concerning material resources, both military and non-military.
Through a process tracing methodology, this analysis reveals how the UK weaponised various knowledge interdependences to reshape its relations and address material interdependences with the EU, NATO, but also in minilateral groupings. Thus, this paper’s first contribution is theoretical, and shows how knowledge circulation theory is not just useful to reveal informal power dynamics in information sharing but - in doing so - exposes patterns for material cooperation. Empirically, it explains the UK’s recent cooperative choices, ultimately demonstrating how Euro-British interdependencies remain at the core of ‘Brexited UK’s security strategies and positioning.
