I think the EU certainly helped a lot by trade and free movement of people.  It&#x27;s a lot harder to make people from another country into demons if you&#x27;ve met them and shared a bottle of wine with some of their (almost inevitably from a UK perspective, better) food.  Not impossible - but much harder.<p>I think we&#x27;ve had proxy wars by major powers going back millenia - I don&#x27;t think that&#x27;s <i>such</i> a strange situation for Europe compared to free movement and cheap flights.