'Coalition Politics' author Juliet Kaarbo testifies on Scottish Independence
Juliet Kaarbo, author of Coalition Politics and Cabinet Decision Making, testified to the British Parliament on the subject of Scottish independence earlier this month. Kaarbo, senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh specializing in foreign policy, shared her insights on potentially shaping Scotland's role as a small sovereign state divorced from the United Kingdom, in light of the governing Scottish National Party's platform of Scottish statehood. The testimony was mostly directed at understanding what Scotland stands to lose if they take what is now 8% of the United Kingdom's population under their own rule.
"Small states," said Kaarbo, "by definition, have a resource disadvantage". However, and of most interest to the committee, she said, "there are things that small states do fairly routinely--not all of them to success--to try to punch above their weight, so to speak." Referencing Costa Rica and Ghana as small "resource-dependent, resource small" nations that have wielded considerable influence in leadership positions in the past, Kaarbo discussed how international organizations would play a crucial part in Scotland's political presence. The fact that Scotland would not be a large, threatening country with any hidden agenda would give Scotland a use of "soft power [that] is often different from the way large states use it".
Ultimately, a sovereign Scotland would need to "specialize and not try to cover the range of global issues that large states do--concentrating their fewer resources on specific areas," meaning it would need a diplomatic niche. "One of the big constraints is a next-door neighbor that is bigger and with which you are interdependent economically. Scotland would certainly have to take care and judge how rest of UK-Scotland relationships would affect those choices." If it is fortunate enough, it will be able to maintain an economic niche as well, with products like Scotch Whisky.
A transcript of Dr. Kaarbo's testimony is available at Parliament's web site.
