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Preparing for Brexit: Substance, Politics and Readiness in an International Re-negotiation


The UK ‘Brexit referendum’ set in motion a unique and highly complex set of negotiations to withdraw from a fundamentally embedded economic and political union. The final referendum was preceded by a nine-month pre-negotiation phase; this article examines the dynamics of that stage. The context of a unilaterally initiated negotiation, together with the economic and political costs associated with it, distinguish it from the existing literature. Three analytical approaches are combined and built upon in this article: the tasks of the pre-negotiation phase, the readiness of the temporal moment, and the demands of multi-level, multi-party negotiations. The concept of psychological readiness has broad theoretical import, though explicit recognition is given that negotiators are not unitary decision makers and that the incorporation of a political analysis is required. The combination of these frameworks provides insight into the dynamics of this phase and the difficulties experienced by both the UK and EU27.