This Communication considers the importance of the different regional results of the 2016 Brexit referendum and the role of the independence movements of Northern Ireland and Scotland that arose during the negotiation process, after the United Kingdom triggered, on 29th of March 2017, the article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty which provided the withdrawal of a Member State from the European Union. The Independence movements in the United Kingdom have shaped a pertinent relationship between the political, cultural and social formation of the union and the existence of a British national identity, characterized by a common political and cultural sphere, but also by the individuality of the regions constituting the United Kingdom. In this sense, I will examine the strategies used by both independence movements in the Negotiation process of Brexit, by means of the Constructivism, Negotiation Theory and Bureaucratic Politics dynamics, as well as the Process Tracing, in order to understand the connection between the debate on British national identity and the role of Northern Ireland and Scotland on this debate. Therefore, Brexit has implications in two different axes, in the integrity of the United Kingdom as a cohesive political entity and on the debate around the consolidation of national identity of this independence movements.
Keywords: Brexit, Negotiation Process, Independence Movements, National Identity
Bruno Fonseca | Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas – NOVA (FCSH-NOVA), Lisboa, Portugal
Bruno Fonseca is graduated in History from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto (2015). In the same institution, he pursued his academic career in the Master’s Degree in History, International Relations and Cooperation. After this cycle of studies, he joined the NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities in the PhD in International Relations (2017) where he is developing and deepening research competences with the research project about the role of the independence movements in the negotiation process of Brexit.