The changing post-Brexit UK-EU relationship and rules-based global governance

Abstract

In 2023, relations between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) began taking on a more reasoned approach. The Windsor Framework, agreed in February between the Sunak government and the EU, resolved most of the tensions about trade with Northern Ireland. 2023 also witnessed a more pragmatic approach to dealing with several issues harming (British) business and unnecessarily grating post-Brexit relations with the EU. Furthermore, the UK has shown quite staunch support for Ukraine, and Britain's geopolitical interests today are broadly similar to the EU's in a world in which the rules-based international order underpinning global governance is greatly weakened. The nature of Brexit, however, is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.