The Brexit Delusions (1. universal monarchy)

1. The Universal Monarchy (“Super State”) Delusion

Boris Johnson suggested that the EU is by stealth trying to achieve the imposition of a Super State in a similar way as others in past vied for the establishment of “Universal Monarchy” (Charles the Great, Charles V, Luis XIV, Napoleon, Hitler) and that Britain has always resisted such efforts.

This is a historically misguided argument. It takes a core historical fact (that strong men in past indeed tried to dominate Europe, where they all failed thanks in part to British resistance) in order to distort the reading of the EU’s role today and undermine EU’s credibility by associating it with such authoritarian echoes from the past.

The historical fault-lines across Europe, around which wars were frequently fought, varied from religious (Catholics versus Protestants) geopolitical (continental versus maritime powers) constitutional (authoritarians versus liberals) nationalist, dynastic and more. Britain would often switch sides between opposing camps, although for the most part (albeit not exclusively) it fought on the side of the Protestant cause, on the side of liberal parliamentary values and represented a maritime commercial force against continental authoritarianism. Britain could not outfight the continent if it united against it, and whenever it found itself isolated, its own survival was seriously challenged. Hence Britain’s key strategic objective has always been to avert the consolidation of absolute power stacked up against it. Its key strategic objective has always been to avoid isolation against the rest of the continent and to be always part of a broader coalition. It primarily used diplomacy and alliances to achieve this, through means of active engagement in European affairs – never through retreat and isolationism.

In doing so, Britain has been an indispensable contributor to the European project, not least through its contribution to industry, the Enlightenment, science and the propagation of its liberal values and way of life. Britain has been instrumental in maintaining the European equilibrium, either by preventing the Hapsburg or the Bourbon dominance, or by fighting Napoleon or Hitler, always by securing pertinent alliances in response to the requirements of the moment, always focused on the longer term.

The EU has been Britain’s strategic achievement after the 2^nd world war, by which Europe was able to effectively neutralise past fault-lines, and secure a positive resolution on foundational issues. Through the EU, Britain and its allies have enshrined liberties, human rights, parliamentarianism and democracy in the DNA of European body politic and have for ever defeated authoritarianism. Through the EU (and through Britain’s active participation thereat), Britain and its allies have ensured that the potential of German dominance or French aggrandisement is kept at bay, not by suppressing or subduing the creativity and vitality of these neighbouring nations, but by channelling their potential into a peaceful project, for the benefit of all European peoples, without need for territorial aggression or conquest, by giving mutual access to each-others’ territories and markets and by creating the common market whereby financial and political interdependency serves as the permanent guarantee for peace and prosperity. The EU is an open competitive arena, where competition between private enterprise and state institutions (which in past is credited for making the continent the most competitive and progressive region in the world) remains a driving benevolent force, but defused of its former destructive side effects. Through the EU Britain has achieved its long standing strategic objective of securing the continental balance of power, which is key to European and world peace and stability, whilst at the same time securing its other paramount historical objective for freedom of commerce and access to European ports and the European mainland.

In the 21^st century and beyond the aggregation of European sovereign power (economic, diplomatic, military) has the potential to present in an otherwise complex and unstable world with the necessary counterbalance either in response to the ascendancy of the East (China, India, Japan) or in defence against revisionist aspirations closer at home (Russia, Turkey, Middle East). The vital historical strategic interests of Britain demand that the British people persevere along the path of active participation and contribution to the project for a strong EU.

The EU is a win-win for all. It is the answer of the European peoples (and of Britain in particular) to the age old fear of Universal Monarchy, it is the assurance that no one strong man, monarch, dictator, or nation, will ever seek to impose through aggression or intimidation its will on the rest of the free people of our continent, whilst at the same time, the people of Europe, in a process of free and willing collaboration, unite in an effort to enable each nation, and more importantly, each individual, to achieve its full potential within this secure framework.

The EU is the answer to Britain’s age old objectives and insecurities. This European project is indeed unique in human experience where for the first time in history people are uniting willingly and freely, not through top down conquest or military coercion, but through bottom up democratic and peaceful process that is to be admired (and which is indeed emulated elsewhere as a shining example). Boris and the other populist Eurosceptics ought to know their history better, than to seek to undo strategic British achievements by taking Britain out of the safe harbour of the EU and throwing it in the abyss and uncertainties of isolationism.

How characteristically un-British to desert than to direct, to leave than to lead, to fear than to aspire, to go it alone, than to play along, to be introspective, than outward looking, to be led by escapists than visionaries! It takes more than just a referendum to leave the EU, it takes a change of heart and a change of national character of monumental historical proportions.