Quote Originally Posted by Boohugh View Post
Britain built it's wealth on basically creating a massive, secure trading bloc (that's effectively what the Empire was) and it still relies on that trade (although with everyone now) for the health of the economy. Over 90% of our physical trade travels by sea, the vast majority of which goes through 7 key maritime chokepoints (a number of which are in the middle east/indian ocean region), including a significant amount of our energy supplies. If we let the rest of the world go to pot then it'll only come back and bite us in the bum, so it's in our interests to intevene abroad.
Possibly true, but the world has changed much from the days of the Empire. Where once were several European nations trying to screw each other over colonial affairs and maritime trade routes, now there is pretty much free trade in the world. A Romanian ship will pass through Malaca strait just like a British ship would and if one of the big boys (India, China, US...) tried to change how it works, you wouldn't be able to do anything about it anyway. You can still throw your weight around the middle east (but even that is debatable if you didn't have US support) but that won't last long. So, building and maintaining a huge navy is just a waste of money, in my humble opinion.