Channel trouble? Challenges to UK-EU security collaboration after Brexit

Negotiating the UK’s future security and defence relationship with the EU was never going to be easy, but many argued it would at least be simpler than in other areas. Yet the negotiations have proven more protracted than might have been expected. This chapter examines why this has been the case. Our argument is structured around the five main reasons given as to why security and defence would be an easier domain in which to reach agreement. Not only have a number of aspects relating to Britain’s role in European security been misrepresented, we argue, but also the basis for these arguments in the first place have been changed by the direct and indirect consequences of the Brexit vote itself.