Why students – and the Foreign Office – should study John Swinney's handling of Donald Trump
As demonstrated by John Swinney’s meeting with Donald Trump, Scotland needs to get involved in global diplomacy
There are those in Scotland, and elsewhere in the UK, who argue that Holyrood and the Scottish Government should play no part in international affairs. This week has illustrated, yet again, just why that it is nonsense, given both parliament’s responsibilities and the reality of the world in which we live.
From day one, the Scottish Parliament and its First Ministers looked outward, and that interest was returned. The Holyrood building is full of gifts that were received from international partners to mark the Scottish Parliament’s re-establishment, such as the carving of a pink-footed goose, a bird that considers both Scotland and Iceland as home, from the latter country’s Althing.
I used to work in Scotland House in Brussels and would regularly pass the plaque to mark its opening by Donald Dewar, Scotland’s first First Minister. The international footprint established by Dewar was continued by subsequent Labour First Ministers with offices in Washington and Beijing, as well as the establishment of a distinctively Scottish international aid fund by Jack McConnell.
High rates of foreign investment
Successive SNP administrations who saw the importance of Scotland’s role internationally took up the torch after 2007. That work saw partnerships with other administrations on issues as diverse as climate change, education and economic development.
Foreign policy may be reserved to Westminster but there are precious few areas of Holyrood control where there is not some international angle. It is due to that work that Scotland enjoys one of the highest rates of foreign direct investment in the UK.
It is why other non-independent entities invest so heavily in international affairs. The governments of Flanders, Quebec, the German Lander and Wales, among others, have significant international footprints. There are over 300 offices of ‘sub-state’ actors – governments that are not independent states – in Brussels alone. It is a perfectly normal part of the international environment, our neighbours such as Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Isle of Man, Jersey and others conduct extensive international affairs work.
Scotland has one of the best-known international brands and footprints with a 40-million-strong diaspora. Some at Holyrood may not interested in the rest of the world – but the rest of the world is interested in us.
Just before the last Scottish parliamentary election, the Liberal Democrats, SNP and Labour all backed the idea of establishing a Scottish Council on Global Affairs, an international think tank that looked at international affairs from a Scottish perspective, drawing on the world-leading expertise here in cooperation with global partners.
That has since been successfully established, anchored in the deeply international universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow with the full backing of the UK (both this one and the previous administration) and Scottish governments.
Even the most vociferous unionists believe Scotland should have a view on international affairs with Conservative MSP Steven Kerr calling for the Scottish Parliament to fly the Israeli flag in the aftermath of the appalling Hamas terror attacks in October 2023. Having called for the parliament to take that step, it is therefore difficult to refuse the institution expressing its views on other international issues.
Tricky trans-Atlantic relationship
This week we can be particularly grateful for the investment in Scotland’s international affairs. John Swinney became just the second First Minister since the re-establishment of the Scottish Parliament to set foot in the Oval Office.
His deft handling of a tricky trans-Atlantic relationship meant that he was able to make the case for the Scottish whisky industry and Scottish jobs direct to the president. We know that approach is particularly effective with this White House incumbent.
He was assisted in his work by the Scotch Whisky Association. That is an industry that gets the power of its brand and that of Scotland more generally. The whisky industry body is ably led by former British diplomat Mark Kent, who previously navigated the UK Argentinian-relationship as ambassador in Buenos Aires, where he won plaudits for his work in bolstering that relationship and reaching out to communities affected by the 1982 conflict.
He knows that there is more to diplomacy than engagements between state-recognised ambassadors and heads of government talking to each other. Jobs and investment rely on the work of the First Minister and industry leaders like Mark Kent.
Even though Scotland has just a tiny fraction of the UK’s diplomatic resources, the First Minister has had a better week in managing the US relationship than the Prime Minister. The entirely predictable loss of Peter Mandelson in a week that has been critical to the economy as well as the UK’s security, with Russia’s attacks on a Nato ally, is not good news for anyone. It also comes just before a state visit for Trump.
Importance of soft power
As the First Minister showed, using Scotland’s international clout is key to protecting jobs. Scotland is at a great disadvantage by not having its own full diplomatic relationship with state actors, as well as international organisations. That means the Scottish Government must rely on being imaginative, using soft power and partnering with industry and other stakeholders to build and maintain those partnerships.
UK and Scottish interests do not always align – the UK would regularly vote against the Scottish interest in the EU, for instance. That is why successive devolved administrations have invested in Scotland’s external relations. Again, this week we can be grateful for Holyrood’s global outreach.
International relations students, from around the world, at our world-leading and deeply international universities, will be starting their courses over the coming days and weeks. They will be learning that the biggest driver of international policy is domestic politics.
They could do worse than study the First Minister’s approach to his relationship with Trump. Mind you, so could the Foreign Office.
Stephen Gethins is MP for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry and author of Nation to Nation: Scotland’s Place in the World
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