Scotland may regret ignoring foreign policy in the independence debate

Voters in the referendum would do well to remember one or two of Scotland's past disasters: foreign policy can bite

I've been waiting all summer for foreign policy to surface in Scotland's independence referendum campaign. There is excitement over Westminster's pledge. But the debate seems to have been too parochial, too self-absorbed, on both sides to have permitted more than the occasional flick, apart from yes camp admiration for its idea of the Scandinavian social democratic model.

This is odd, partly because the world is currently such a dangerous place that separatism to give it its more potent name seems an odd sort of priority in 2014. Robert Mugabe, the boy king of North Korea and "anti-imperialist" demagogues in Iran or Argentina may favour dissing the Brits, but major states are alarmed for obvious reasons. Most have their separatists.

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