INSIDE TRACK: Public platforms to discuss pressing global issues

IT’S FESTIVAL season again across Scotland. From the extravaganza that is Edinburgh to the smaller but equally valued gatherings such as Wigtown Book Festival or the Beyond Borders International Festival of Literature and Thought, foreign affairs features increasingly on most programmes.

Just to give an idea of the calibre of individuals and events around, we have veteran UN diplomat Staffan de Mistura discussing the search for peace in Syria, at the Beyond Borders festival at Traquair House in Innerleithen. Then at Edinburgh’s Just Festival, renowned aid worker Rae McGrath of Mercy Corps, who has been at the forefront of the humanitarian response to the Syrian conflict, will provide insights on the massive human cost of the war.

Through its myriad festivals Scotland is blessed with public platforms on which the pressing global issues of the day can be discussed, analysed and argued over.

That there is a phenomenal appetite for this discourse is without doubt. Indeed, if anything, I sense the voraciousness of this growing, especially running up to and in the immediate aftermath of the independence referendum.

It’s almost as if Scots have woken up to their place in the world and what our role as a nation should be when it comes to responding on foreign affairs issues. This perhaps should come as little surprise given that Scotland has always been outward looking and internationalist in its political take.

At many of the events I have attended over the years it is not unusual to come away with a strong sense that Scots continue to be well travelled, well read and worldly wise, erudite on anything from US foreign policy to the plight of migrants. But before this gets a little too “wha’s like us?”, perhaps it’s worth pausing to consider how best such a natural reservoir of interest and willingness to engage in such issues can best be consolidated for Scotland’s benefit as a whole. Regular readers of this column will know I have previously made the case for having a take on foreign affairs from a Scottish perspective rather than simply the UK or Westminster one that is invariably foisted upon us. To that end it’s been refreshing of late to see Alex Salmond in his role as SNP foreign affairs spokesman or Stephen Gethins, the first SNP MP on the UK’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee, raising concerns over UK Government policies on Iraq, Syria and Libya that many Scots would also question. I’m thinking here of claims that air strikes – ostensibly against Islamic State (IS) militants – have killed hundreds of civilians in Iraq and Syria, or that the UK Government spent a fraction of what it cost to bomb Libya helping rebuild and stabilise it.

These efforts are to be welcomed. But if Scotland is to have more of a say on such things then it needs to have its own formal foreign affairs body that helps shape policy considerations. At festival venues and events Scots will continue intelligently to voice their often contrary take on foreign policy to that implemented by the UK Government. Surely, it is only right that the Scottish Government helps distil and articulate this by the creation of its own foreign policy think tank.

‘‘ It’s almost as if Scots have woken up to their place in the world and what our role should be when responding on foreign affairs issues