James Stavridis , Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, writes in Foreign Policy : “The people have spoken, and United Kingdom will leave the European Union. The United States and Europe will be confronted with a raft of bad news that goes along with that decision: economic turmoil, a faltering British economy, a deeply weakened political entity in the European Union itself, the high chance of a Scottish departure from the UK, to name just a few of the challenges. The political and economic institutions of the West all seem worse off than they were just 24 hours ago.”  

“The sole exception might be the military. Brexit, counter-intuitive as it might sound, will likely produce a stronger NATO.”  

“There are several reasons that the British departure from the EU portends a stronger transatlantic military alliance. First is the present state of heightened wariness among all NATO member states – and that includes EU members, as well as the United States, Canada, Norway, and Turkey – about adventurism by Putin’s Russia. The Kremlin’s goal has always been to be the strongest political entity on the continent, and it is likely to look for ways to further exploit the Brexit referendum’s centrifugal effects on the already fractious democracies of western Europe. Since its founding, NATO has provided the most resolute military balance against such efforts, and thus its stock can be expected to rise with publics in Europe.”