This important book provides the first systematic assessment of the so-called Norway Model, suggested as an off-the-shelf option for the UK to ‘square the circle’ after Brexit. Two preeminent Norwegian scholars of politics and law offer a comprehensive first-hand account of Norway’s relationship with the EU and how this affects the country’s legal and political system, setting out what Britain can learn from Norway’s experience and how transferable these lessons are. Their analysis also explores what impact the UK’s presence is likely to have on existing members of the European Economic Area (EEA) discussing both the opportunities and the challenges. The book will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in the future of the UK’s relationship with Europe.

Understanding Brexit provides a concise introduction to the past, present and future of one of the most important and controversial topics in modern British politics. Written for both those familiar with the topic and those new to it, the book sets out in a clear and accessible way many of the fundamentals for understanding why Britain voted to leave the European Union and what happens next.

ONE OF 2023'S BIGGEST NEW BOOKS (GUARDIAN) A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2023 A GUARDIAN 'IF YOU READ ONE BOOK ABOUT . . .' POLITICS PICK A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2023: POLITICS Six years after Brexit, it can feel like we’re still having the same conversations. This is the explainer we need to move on. And we do need to move on, because in the meantime so much has changed. The economic realities that are making the UK less competitive, less productive and less well-off are ever more obvious – and more and more people are finding out the Brexit they were sold was based on falsehoods and fantasy. So what exactly went wrong with Brexit? In this book, Peter Foster dispels the myths and, most importantly, shows what a better future for Britain after Brexit might look like. With clear-headed practicality, he considers the real costs of leaving the EU, how we can recover international trust in the UK, how to improve cooperation and trade with our neighbours, and how to begin to build the Global Britain that Brexit promised but failed to deliver. The politicians won’t talk about it, so we need to.

Brexit has irrevocably transformed British politics, yet its effects are not confined to relations between the UK and the EU. Venturing beyond the already vast literature on Brexit, this dynamic Handbook explores the implications of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU for the EU itself, single countries within and beyond Europe, and the international system, as well as different social groups, generations, and territories within the UK.

This book offers a comprehensive political assessment of Brexit. Based on a historical review of the role of the United Kingdom in the European Union, the author, a former diplomat at the German embassy in London, presents well-founded insights into arguments in favor and against the Brexit deal and the status quo of the Brexit negotiations. Furthermore, the book discusses the consequences of Brexit – for the UK and the rest of the EU, for security in Europe, and for the transatlantic relationship, as well as for global trade relations and the competitiveness of Europe and the UK.

In June 2016, the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. As the EU’s chief negotiator, for four years Michel Barnier had a seat at the table as the two sides thrashed out what ‘Brexit’ would really mean. The result would change Britain and Europe forever. During the 1600 days of complex and often acrimonious negotiations, Michel Barnier kept a secret diary. He recorded his private hopes and fears, and gave a blow-by-blow account as the negotiations oscillated between consensus and disagreement, transparency and lies. From Brussels to London, from Dublin to Nicosia, Michel Barnier’s secret diary lifts the lid on what really happened behind the scenes of one of the most high-stakes negotiations in modern history. The result is a unique testimony from the ultimate insider on the hidden world of Brexit and those who made it happen.

This comprehensive volume explores the political, social, economic and geographical implications of Brexit within the context of an already divided UK state. It demonstrates how support for Brexit not only sharpened differences within England and between the separate nations comprising the UK state, but also reflected how austerity politics, against which the referendum was conducted, impacted differently, with north and south, urban and rural becoming embroiled in the Leave vote. This book explores how, as the process of negotiating the secession of the UK from the EU was to demonstrate, the seemingly intractable problem of the Irish border and the need to maintain a ‘soft border’ provided a continuing obstacle to a smooth transition. The authors in this book also explore various other profound questions that have been raised by Brexit; questions of citizenship, of belonging, of the probable impacts of Brexit for key economic sectors, including agriculture, and its meaning for gender politics. The book also brings to the forefront how the UK was geographically imagined – a new lexicon of ‘left behind places’, ‘citizens of somewhere’ and ‘citizens of nowhere’ conjuring up new imaginations of the spaces and places making up the UK. This book draws out the wider implications of Brexit for a refashioned geography. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal Space and Polity.

Brexit means exit, but what exactly will we be leaving behind? Entry into the European Community in 1973 was a momentous event – one which had seismic effects on the politics and constitution of Britain. Brexit, while equally as momentous, has almost wholly been confined to discussions of economic consequence. But what will happen to the constitution? Beyond Brexit looks for the first time at the impact of Brexit and the constitutional consequences of Britain's EU membership, raising the question of just how the United Kingdom is to be preserved. In this book, Vernon Bogdanor explores the ever-changing relationship between Britain and the European Union from the original concept of European unity to 21st century Euroscepticism, the fundamental problems confronting Britain on its exit from the European Union, and argues that Brexit is the start of new beginnings – heralding a peaceful constitutional moment.

The surprise decision expressed by the British people in the referendum held in June 2016 to leave the European Union was remarkable. It also presents a "natural experiment" where the exposure of a society to an extraordinary event allows scholars to observe, in real time in the real world, the interaction of variables. The Routledge Handbook of the Politics of Brexit takes stock of what we know in the social science community about the Brexit phenomenon so far and looks to make sense of this remarkable process as it unfolds. The book asks simple questions across a range of areas and topics so as to frame the debate into a number of navigable "subdiscussions", providing structure and form to what is an evolving and potentially inchoate topic. As such, it provides a systematic account of the background for, the content of, and the possible implications of Brexit. The handbook therefore does not examine in detail the minutiae of Brexit as it unfolds on a day-to-day basis but raises its sights to consider both the broad contextual factors that shape and are shaped by Brexit and the deeper sources and implications of the British exit from the European Union. Importantly, as interest in Brexit reaches far beyond the shores of the United Kingdom, so an international team of contributors examines and reveals the global implications and the external face of Brexit. The Routledge Handbook of the Politics of Brexit will be essential reading and an authoritative reference for scholars, students, researchers and practitioners involved in and actively concerned about research on Brexit, British politics, European Union politics, and comparative politics and international relations.

The UK’s departure from the EU has profoundly affected the politics and economics of Northern Ireland. Brexit has shattered a political accommodation that was taking shape in the region that involved nationalism and unionism refraining from aggressively pursuing their own objectives or making excessive demands on each other. Economically, it has made the task of building an innovative economy in the region immeasurably more difficult. Without radical change, Northern Ireland is destined to be an economic outhouse of an under-performing UK economy. This book represents the first systematic study of the impact of Brexit on the political and economic future of Northern Ireland and Ireland. It provides a detailed assessment of the consequences of the Belfast Agreement and highlights how Brexit imperils the advances that have been made since its signing in 1998. It makes a dispassionate assessment of the changes that may be necessary to create a stronger Northern Ireland economy. On the one hand, demands for the immediate unification of Ireland that are now being made loudly and persistently by nationalists and republicans are considered too precipitous. The two economies on the island are not yet ready for Irish unity. On the other hand, the book argues the case for a radical reorientation of the Northern Ireland economy through the incremental creation of an all-Ireland economy. The book cuts through the rhetoric that characterizes so much discussion about the Northern Ireland economy and provides a hard-headed appraisal of not only its structure and performance, but also the economic feasibility of Irish unity.