Why Scotland must grow up about its attitude towards defence industry – Stewart McDonald and Stuart Nicolson
The negative public image of the defence sector in Scotland is a serious problem
Of the many issues crowding Andy Burnham's in-tray on his arrival in Downing Street, the future shape of the UK's defence and security architecture was among the weightiest. The long-awaited Defence Investment Plan was published in Keir Starmer's final weeks in office, meaning it is Burnham who has assumed ownership of the plans, whose forthcoming Budget must settle in full how they are paid for, and whose political fortunes, for good or ill, will be shaped in part by their delivery.
The proposals themselves are striking in that they reflect the changing nature of security threats, highlighted by the wars in Ukraine and the Gulf, and the likely response to them. In considering what all of this means for Scotland, it is worth recognising both the huge relevance the country has to wider defence and security thinking and the very real potential the nation possesses to play its part in this new era.
Scotland has long been a key nation in a geopolitical sense. Our location on the edge of northwest Europe was crucial in the Second World War and throughout the Cold War, when we sat on the Atlantic frontier of the Western alliance. That history has bequeathed a rich tradition of defence-related industries and infrastructure. Scotland's naval shipbuilding sector, for example, remains a significant employer and source of technological innovation.
Saying the right things
There is, however, a fundamental disconnect between the status Scotland holds in security considerations, geographically and industrially, and the place it occupies in our national conversations.
Much of Scotland's political establishment has for a long time – certainly since the end of the Cold War, therefore encompassing the whole of the devolved era to date – eschewed serious engagement with the whole question of defence and security. That habit runs right across parties and institutions.
The consensus, as much as there can be said to have been any, has been one of saying the right things at the right time without taking much responsibility for bolstering security.
Ukraine is a case in point. Holyrood's response to Putin's aggression was exemplary in providing sanctuary for refugees fleeing war. On the harder question of what role Scotland's industrial base might play in helping Ukraine withstand attack, it was a rather different story, with much of the body politic recoiling at the notion of Scottish-based companies producing munitions.
A change of policy
In fairness, the Scottish government has since lifted its longstanding presumption against public funds supporting the production of munitions. That has been underlined with the publication of the new Programme for Government, which explicitly calls for the establishment of a "responsible defence industrial growth programme" to ensure Scotland benefits economically from increased UK and European defence spending.
These issues were highlighted last week in a report published by the House of Commons’ Scottish Affairs Committee, which found that while Scotland is well placed to benefit from defence-related investment, that potential is being held back by skills shortages.
Security in its broadest sense reaches across a whole raft of devolved policy areas, well beyond the nuts and bolts of defence procurement. Our offshore energy infrastructure – oil and gas and renewables alike – is a would-be target for disruption, as are our onshore energy facilities and the subsea cables that carry our data and communications.
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Meanwhile, our key public services, including NHS Scotland and all our local authorities and related bodies, remain vulnerable to cyberattacks which could do untold damage both financially and to those services' ability to keep people safe. The same is true across the wider economy, from the financial services firms clustered in Edinburgh and Glasgow to the technology, data and software businesses on which so much else now depends.
Holyrood is responsible for much of the policymaking which covers these issues, whether steering apprenticeship policy and the routes into high-quality jobs in the technology and security sectors, or overseeing the national resilience framework needed to protect key services from attack and disruption.
Learning from Scandinavia
Small nations to our north have long treated security in this way. In Finland and Norway, it is a whole-of-society endeavour in which government, business, academia and civil society each play their part. We would do well to learn from them.
That cannot and should not mean the militarisation of society as a whole, but it should mean better preparedness for potential emergencies and a mindset which is more open to the role the defence and security sector can play economically and in terms of national resilience.
Last week’s Scottish Affairs Committee report also highlighted the negative public image of the defence sector in Scotland as something which is potentially holding back the capacity for growth and investment.
The new Scottish Parliament elected in May, in which nearly half of MSPs are sitting at Holyrood for the first time, offers a chance to address these issues while the session is young and its habits are still being formed.
The Scottish Security Dialogue, a new forum established to address that gap, exists for precisely this purpose. Delivered in partnership with the Scottish Council on Global Affairs, a research institute supported by three of our oldest universities, it brings policymakers together with those who deal with these questions every day, from the defence and energy industries to the technology, data, cyber and financial services sectors, along with academia and wider civil society.
Keeping the peace in a new age of threats requires imagination coupled with a free and frank exchange of ideas. In a non-partisan setting, the Scottish Security Dialogue can facilitate the grown-up, cross-party conversations the country badly needs, and to which every part of Scottish life has something to contribute.
Stewart McDonald is a former MP for Glasgow South and Stuart Nicolson is a former Scottish government advisor
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