Brexit and the United Kingdom-European Union relationship from the perspective of a complex adaptive system

Abstract

The UK-EU relationship has been depicted as awkward, and Brexit represents the pinnacle of this strangeness. This paper uses the Complex Adaptive Systems framework and the Containers, Differences, Exchanges (CDE) model to understand Brexit as a turning point in the system-wide pattern of the UK-EU relationship from differentiated integration to disintegration. Also, in accordance with the post-functionalist theory, this article argues that the ‘constraining dissensus’ that emerged since the 1990s has been pushing both towards more differentiated integration and, ultimately, towards disintegration.