The Anglosphere was one of the surprise winners of the 2016 Referendum campaign.  As an explicitly stated concept it appeared early on in the campaign but soon faded from view.  But where it did play a part in the campaign was less as a unitary concept but more in its constituent parts: sometimes as an example to emulate and at other times as another layer of global interference to reject.

Most importantly, it was a crucial element of a specifically English nationalism that sought to defend British sovereignty from European integration and competing nationalisms within the UK, whilst simultaneously restoring a global conception of the UK’s national interests.

SPEAKER

Dr Ben Wellings is Deputy-director of the Monash European and EU Centre at Monash University.

As well as his on-going examination of English nationalism and Euroscepticism his research interests also cover Australia and its relationship with Europe. He is co-editor (along with Shanti Sumartojo) of ‘Nation, Memory and Great War Commemoration: mobilising the past in Europe, Australia and New Zealand (Bern: Peter Lang, 2014).

New Articles:

Wellings, Ben. 2016. ‘Our Island Story: England, Europe and the Anglosphere Alternative’, Political Studies Review, 14, 3: 368-77.

Wellings, Ben and Vines, Emma. 2016. ‘Populism and Sovereignty: the EU Act and the In-Out Referendum, 2010-15’, Parliamentary Affairs, 69, 2: 309-26.

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European Union Centre at RMIT University