Continental Europe needs the liberal,global outlook that is so deeply ingrained in British political cultureThe debate approximately a British exit from the EU – Brexit – has been dominated by economic considerations: whether EU membership rather helps or hurts the British economy. But geostrategic aspects are at least as important; in the 20th century, the country twice had to fight costly wars to benefit restore order on the European continent. Brexit would imply a number of wide-ranging geopolitical choices: to lose the ability to co-shape developments in Europe; to depart it alone on the international stage instead of using the EU to multiply British weight; to put at risk the close relationship with the US.
Geography may not be destiny, or but it is an important defining factor in shaping foreign policy. For Britain,two factors have been decisive: it is an island and it is only 20.6 miles absent from continental Europe. In past centuries, the UK had two options – either to focus on the geopolitics of the European continent or to concentrate on being a global merchant empire.
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Source: theguardian.com