Recently Her Majesty, the Queen, asked her dinner guests to give her three reasons why UK should stay in the EU.[1] Here are three reasons.
First, the UK has a strategic interest in European stability and the EU has provided that stability. For over 400 years the UK has ensured that Europe would not be dominated by a single malevolent power. In those 400 years, each time Europe was dominated by a single power, the UK was attacked. After the Second World War, the UK could no longer balance a united Europe nor a united Germany on its own. The Cold War struggle between the United State of America and the USSR meant that Europe was in danger of being controlled by a dominating power that threatened the UK. Therefore, joining the European Community in 1973 made geopolitical sense within that context. However, forty-four years later, the geopolitical imperative remains even though Germany is united, it is surrounded, surrounded by friends, armed friends. For that friendship to work, it requires the UK to play a vital balancing role within the alliance as well as act as a leader of that alliance given its great maritime power. Without the UK in the EU, it is weaker in the face of the renewed threat from a restive Russia. The EU needs the UK and the Europe needs a strong EU to resist the Russian threat.
Second, the UK’s ability to act in the world is hampered if she lacks the freedom to act created by EU membership. As part of the EU alliance, she does not have to guard her flank. She has strategic flexibility in determining her strategic interests around the world. If the Falklands had been fought with the UK outside of the EU, then the UK would have to contend with the real possibility that her strategic and diplomatic flank would be vulnerable to Argentinian advances. The UK would have to manage the EU as a separate strategic entity that would pursue its ambitions and take advantage of the UK’s vulnerabilities. Without the security of EU membership, the UK would be vulnerable to geopolitical threats from European peninsula.
Third, the UK should stay in the EU for it is a fitting tribute to Her Majesty’s legacy of peace and stability. Your Majesty, you have shepherded your country from the depths of post-Second World War recovery through 60 years of peace and prosperity rarely marked by war or internal conflict. Your kingdom and your people know unprecedented peace with Northern Ireland showing the possibility of an enduring peace. The Union remains strong, and the people free and prosperous, because your reign has provided stability. The stability allowed for great success. You came to the throne in a time of uncertainty and weakness. Do you want to pass on as your legacy the great uncertainty and crisis of an EU exit?
These are three reasons: global, national, and personal; why the UK should remain in the EU.
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/21/queen-asks-guests-to-give-her-3-reasons-why-britain-should-remai/
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