Hannan is an advocate of national sovereignty and has questioned the idea that "nationalism causes war". Hannan has been referred to as a "British nationalist" and "British Gaullist". In a debate prior to the EU Referendum in Great Britain, Hannan said "Being a nation means that we are not just a random set of individuals born to a different random set of random individuals. It imposes on us a duty to keep intact the freedoms that we were lucky enough to inherit from our parents and pass them on securely to the next generation." He advocates for an affinity of "English-speaking nations" which share "Anglosphere characteristics".