Brexit and the U.S.-U.K. Defense Relationship

The House of Commons has rejected the Withdrawal Agreement between Britain and the European Union proposed by Prime Minister Theresa May no fewer than three times. Public debate on this Agreement has focused on its inability to deliver the Brexit that Britain voted for in the landmark 2016 referendum because of the Agreement’s effects on trade, regulations, and the relationship between Ireland and Northern Ireland. However, the Agreement also has important intelligence, defense, and security dimensions. In his presentation, Professor Gwythian Prins, a member of the Chief of the UK Defense Staff’s Strategy Advisory Panel and emeritus research professor at the London School of Economics, will review the Agreement’s shortcomings in these dimensions and set out the risks it poses to the Anglo-American Special Relationship.