Ivan Eland, senior fellow and director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at the Independent Institute, told Radio Sputnik that the Brexit may trigger a "short-term turmoil," but it's no doomsday for the UK or Europe.
The vote to exit the EU will affect worldwide markets, but will not be a catastrophe for Britain, Eland claims.
"EU is sort of a leaking, maybe even sinking ship. They have all these problems with euro, and financial crisis, etc. The Brits are just saying ‘You know, we want a little distance from the EU.' They'll probably come to some agreements on trade and other things, like Norway and Switzerland have done."
"Europe has too many cultures, too many nationalities, too many currencies for this to happen. The single currency was never very viable. In the United states a single currency works, but you only have one federal government," he explained. "The problem is, when you get this huge bureaucracy telling everybody what to do that doesn't make sense in their particular countries, and there are foreigners telling you what to do…it could cause a ripple effect."
Eland asserted that, even if xenophobic sentiments motivated the Brexit decision, especially in light of Brits disputing EU immigration policies, it's still the right decision.
"Just because it's for the wrong reason doesn't mean it's not the right outcome for them [Britain]. I think that culturally and economically they may do better on their own. Because they'll eventually get agreements, it's in everybody's interest," he said. "And if the EU starts falling apart, they may have to go back to just being a union of trade and financial transactions, and forget all this unified government and unified foreign policy."
Though immigration is a major factor in the outcome of the referendum, there are other important issues, Eland noted, noting that predictions of catastrophe and doom are mostly made by those with a vested interest in the current system.
Although there have been threats, even from the US, they were mainly aimed at intimidating voters in Britain to remain within the bloc. But now that the voting is done, after a short turmoil, Europe and other countries, including the US, will have to think again. Britain is world's 6th largest economy, and "mutual beneficial nature of trade and finance will overcome bureaucratic designations," Eland said.
