Brexit is Britain’s exit from the European Union. It is the result of a June 2016 referendum in which citizens of the United Kingdom narrowly voted to withdraw from the European Union, and was framed by its supporters as a necessity for a nation that was being held back by the EU.
In a lecture that streamed live from NCH in London at the Northeastern University and viewed by participants in an agile “pop-up” course on the Boston campus, a political science professor of the Northeastern University Mai’a Cross offered a view on Brexit that’s not often present in media coverage of the issue.
In the lecture, Cross delivered a “briefing-style lecture on the history and development of the EU” including the British role in that development. She also got students up to speed on the latest developments in the relationship between the UK and the EU, including the major sticking points. During the second half of the day, Cross gave the students the tools to try to predict what the European Union will look like 10 years from now. During her lecture, Cross presented numerous instances throughout the last 50 years when EU leaders offered concessions to the UK in order to make it appealing for the country to stay in the EU. But when it was voted to leave, some experts expected chaos in the EU. However, Cross said that this is a British crisis and a British problem and a British decision and not something that necessarily has to affect the EU.
There’s a lot of uncertainty around Brexit right now, so students have to be on their toes and these “pop-up” programs are helping a lot along with trans-Atlantic partnerships of universities. It is allowing students to know the current situation and different viewpoints of experts.
Radhika Boruah