Description
The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union has not only transformed its foreign policy orientation but also the venues through which it seeks to exert influence. This article addresses the puzzle of venue repurposing - the ways in which existing diplomatic and security frameworks are adapted to serve new strategic objectives once access to EU decision-making is lost. An expanding body of scholarship has recently paid attention to UK foreign policy post-Brexit, including the role of domestic politics, new foreign policy narratives that are one step removed for the EU, alternative foreign policy venues, and policy variation within the UK’s foreign policy towards the EU. The present authors have also recently discussed the reinforcement of bilateralism with EU Member States within the UK’s foreign policy and whether it relates to dynamics of de-EUisation and de-Europeanisation. Beyond bilateralism, however, little is known about the way the venues traditionally used by UK foreign policy have shifted in the context of post-Brexit UK-EU relations. The proposed article will compare the pre- and post-Brexit usage of four venues traditionally employed in UK foreign policy towards Europe: 1) cooperation with the EU; 2) bilateral cooperation with individual Member States; 3) cooperation via international organisations; 4) informal cooperation. By focusing specifically on the case study of law enforcement cooperation, the article explores how these four venues have been repurposed to achieve British foreign policy ambitions for this policy area and reflects on what these changes mean for the UK’s role as a European internal security actor.
