The United Kingdom is the first country to negotiate its departure from the European Union.

Among the different case studies of “Drifting Apart”, Brexit is the only case of a formal revocation of membership of an international organisation and the only case in which the conflict lines run through a group of Western states. The EU is an institution with a high level of integration marked by a high significance of shared values. The negotiations of the last years have shown how decidedly difficult the dissociation from such an institution can prove. 

Dr. Dirk Peters of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF/HSFK) will trace the level of tensions between the UK and the EU as well as selected member states and examine the discourse both on the international level and in the British society.