Hard bargaining dies hard: the cultural factors behind Britain’s ill-suited Brexit negotiation strategy

While the UK is weaker than the EU on key metrics of bargaining power, the British approach to the Brexit negotiations has been characterised by hard bargaining. Benjamin Martill writes that a number of cultural factors have influenced the UK’s decision to adopt such a sub‐optimal strategy, including the country’s weak socialisation into the EU, overstated perceptions of its own capabilities, the prevailing conservative political ideology, and a longstanding preference for ‘divide and rule’ diplomatic strategies.