It's a balancing act. You don't want your country to be a pushover because it can affect the l ives of your citizens negatively, but at the same time, you don't

It's a balancing act. You don't want your country to be a pushover because it can affect the l ives of your citizens negatively, but at the same time, you don't want to ditch any semblance of national self determination in exchange for an increase in external power/influence. I feel that citizens of rich countries put too much emphasis on the importance of their country projecting power externally. It's cool that you want European countries to be able to stand up to the US and China, but recognise the cost.