Following the invocation of Article 50 in March, and the prospect of an early General Election in June, the ongoing debate on Brexit has begun to intensify as both sides to the discussions begin to delineate their opening negotiating positions regarding Britain’s departure from the EU and the reconfiguration of Britain’s economic and political relationship with Europe.

The Political Economy of Financial Markets (PEFM) Programme at St Antony’s College is collaborating with the Global Strategy Forum (GSF) in the organization of two high-level Conferences, to consider the options and implications of Brexit, from the perspectives of the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe and the rest of the world.[1]

The two Conferences will look specifically at four perspectives on Brexit: (i) how the UK expects its relationship with Europe to change, (ii) how the UK hopes to engage with the rest of the (non-European) world, (iii) ​how the rest of the world might respond to this (unforeseen) European divorce, and (iv) ​how the Europeans themselves see Brexit, both in terms of the new relationship which will need to be forged with the UK, and in terms of the implications for the EU itself.

The first (full) day Conference (open to all subject to registration) will be hosted by St. Antony’s College at the at the Nissan Lecture Theatre on May 16, 2017 and will cover the first three (of the four) perspectives outlined above.[2]

[1] The events planned for mid-May, 2017, will follow with an interval of approximately one year the very successful sequence of Conferences held in Oxford over 27-28 April, 2016, on the theme of the Future of Europe. PEFM shared the organisation of these earlier events with the Oxford Martin School and the Oxford Centre for Global History. The second Conference was generously supported by Citigroup. Reports on these two Conferences, The Future of Europe: the Drivers of Change, and Integration or Disintegration? Europe at the Crossroads in 2016, are available on the following links: Future of Europe and Integration or Disintegration.

[2] The final perspective (on how Europe sees the UK) will be examined in greater granularity in a later Conference (by invitation only) hosted by the GSF in London.