‘Brexit is what states make of it’: Brexit, Canada, and the diplomatic ties that bind

Abstract

The 2016 referendum results on the United Kingdom’s membership in the European Union were surprising to many and widely hailed as yet another example of rising protectionist sentiments around the world. As the UK now prepares to exit the EU, states are undertaking diplomatic offensives to approach ‘Brexit’ and frame it according to their own understandings. This paper will explore how a foreign state, external to the main players, is diplomatically navigating Brexit. Using Canada as a case study, I will investigate the tools, techniques, and channels used by authoritative Canadian diplomatic actors as they engage with the UK and the EU on Brexit; I seek to understand how Canada uses diplomacy to construct and produce ideas and identities embedded within a Brexit context. Employing a constructivist conceptual framework throughout, this paper will use discourse analysis to elucidate how Canada is positioning itself in the shifting global climate and to assess the implications of Brexit for modern diplomacy. The first chapter frames Brexit within the UK-EU context and provides a brief literature overview. The second chapter defines the relationship between Canada and the UK, justifying Canada’s selection as the case study focus for this paper. The third chapter assesses the construction of modern diplomacy, considering the significant evolutions of diplomatic practices and tools and subsequently examines Canadian diplomatic efforts on Brexit. The final chapter analyzes how Brexit is constructed through diplomacy and how, in turn, Canada uses Brexit to produce identities and constrain behaviour. I conclude that Canada employs a tightly unified diplomatic narrative that constructs Brexit in three ways: first, to reaffirm the strength and identity of the UK-Canada relationship; second, to promote trade interests and multilateral partnerships; and third, to produce its own identity as a democratic state that rejects protectionist ideals and upholds liberal-democratic values.