Scottish independence: an exemplary or cautionary foreign policy Rorschach Test?

The eyes of the world are upon us. Or so Scottish Nationalists like to say. Whae’s like us? There is some truth to this even if you think unseemly all the boasting we heard about the number of foreign journalists attending, say, the launch of the Scottish Government’s White Paper on independence. It’s all a bit Sally Field for me. A kind of cringe, if you will.

What’s less frequently said is that almost all foreign governments would prefer Scotland to vote No. “We all prefer the status quo” one western diplomat told me recently. “That’s just the way states operate.” Known things are preferable to unknown things, even if the unknown things might be fine.

Which brings me to Lord Robertson of Port Ellen’s speech to the Brookings Institute yesterday. Islay’s finest suggested Scottish independence might have “cataclysmic” geo-political consequences, an unfortunate – and perhaps needlessly inflammatory – suggestion declared “insulting and offensive” by Nicola Sturgeon.