The long view
Stephen Gethin offers fascinating insight into Scotland’s place – both inside and out of the UK – at the international table, writes Joyce Mcmillan
The cover of this new book by Stephen Gethins – former SNP MP for North East Fife, and now a Professor of International Relations at the University of Andrews – bears many quotes from the great and good of Scottish internationalism emphasising the timeliness of its publication at this moment, as Scotland elects a new parliament, and all parts of the UK strive to adapt to a post-brexit world.
Gethins is of course a Scottish nationalist, who believes that Scotland should soon become an independent state with its own Foreign Ministry and policy priorities. In truth, though, his stance in this book is more that of an earnest student of Scotland’s many-faceted presence on the world stage, and its possible future development, than of a polemicist arguing for independence now. As a former international worker in locations ranging from the Caucasus to Scotland House in Brussels, and a former member of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee during his time as the SNP’S front bench spokesman on the subject, he is also fully aware of Scotland’s existing international presence as a “sub-state actor” within the UK; a presence carefully nurtured and developed by every Scottish Government since devolution, including the early Labour-led administrations of Donald Dewar, Henry Mcleish and Jack Mcconnell.
The result is a fascinating short study which opens with an overview of Scotland’s history of international connections across Europe and the world, and then proceeds to explore areas of existing activity and future potential. These include the case for a strong proactive relationship with the Scottish diaspora in North America and elsewhere; a detailed reflection on the “foreign policy” of other sub-state actors on the world stage such as Flanders, Quebec and Bavaria; and much reflection on the examples of independent statehood or greatly enhanced autonomy provided by our North European and Nordic neighbours, including Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Greenland.
Gethins’ central point is that while Scotland still has demons to confront in terms of its role in the history of Empire and slavery, it resembles other small north European countries in feeling broadly comfortable with the idea of pooling national sovereignty in co-operation with neighbours, and of building a future in a rule-governed international community. In Gethins’ view, though, the trauma of Brexit, and the increasingly blinkered attitude of the UK government towards any serious joint working with the devolved administrations, make it ever more difficult for Scotland successfully to pursue that kind of “foreign policy” within the UK.
In the end, Gethins’ book is slightly overlong for what it has to say, and often a little repetitive, particularly in the frequent redeployment of