Securing Global Britain: building and sustaining plurilateral practices of security cooperation in Europe

The UK has a long-standing role in European security which it pursues through a set of relationships which include bilateral cooperation, minilateral cooperation (with small groups of countries) and multilateral cooperation through membership of major regional organisations and predominantly via the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

European security is currently in a state of flux. Russia's war on Ukraine represents a challenge to the security order in Europe which adds to a range of existing uncertainties in Europe's security, heightened by transnational phenomena impacting on Europe such as migration, climate, energy and the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, there is a major structural transformation of international relations taking place with China's rise and the emergence of the Indo-Pacific as the major cockpit of change in the 21st Century. This has triggered developments such as Sino-American rivalry and an uncertainty in the future of the U.S. security commitment to Europe and the direction of transatlantic relations.

The rationale for the Senior Fellowship is that explaining and understanding the dynamics of UK security policy and practices is essential in the face of such a context. There is major benefit in capturing the dynamics of the UK's policy for European security in a fluid and contested regional and international setting. By examining the UK's shifting position in European security, the project will provide rich insights into the key aspects of the European security environment and the UK's involvement and contribution to European security cooperation flagged in the UKICE call for Senior Fellows. The focus of the Senior Fellowship has the benefit of being in a field where the dynamic evolution of policy practices are outpacing scholarly and public understanding and explanation.

A key aspect of the Senior Fellowship is to understand whether Brexit was a watershed moment for the UK's role in European security. A widespread view is that Brexit resulted in a loss of influence or status for the UK in European security. However, this position is often lacking extensive examination.

The work under the Senior Fellowship will critically interrogate the evolving pattern of security and defence relationships that the UK has grown over recent years. There have been a combination of different types of relationships that the work for this study characterises as 'plurilateralism'. This plurilateralism refers to the resources and policies the UK has brought to bear aimed at securing or increasing the country's status in European security since 2016 through a combination of bilateral partnership practices (with European and North American states), minilateral security and defence relationships with smaller groupings of European countries, and in combination with longstanding multilateral relationships (most notably NATO). This pattern of plurilateral relationships is taking place in the absence of a formal foreign, security and defence policy agreement with the European Union (EU). Specifically, the project examines the three modes of UK European security activity and policy adjustment through case studies: bilateral (France, Germany, Sweden, Poland, USA), minilateral (E3, the 10 nations Joint Expeditionary Force led by the UK) and multilateral (NATO and the EU). These cases are informed by a methodologically and conceptually ambitious research design. They are intended to explore the extent to which the UK has refashioned relationships with partners and generated patterns in its European security strategy that will be explored for aspects of continuity and change. The result of the research undertaken during this Senior Fellowship will be a critical assessment of the patterns, modalities, costs and benefits of the approach to European security being pursued by the UK. Importantly it will also allow for greater insight into the views and understandings of the UK's European security partners.