Edinburgh's Assembly Rooms was packed last Saturday for a Festival Fringe event discussing the war in Afghanistan.

Like my fellow panellists, George Galloway and the Scottish actor-director David Hayman, who also runs the charity Spirit Aid, I thought the turnout of 400 people was testimony to the extent Scots to which are concerned about world affairs.

Much is often made of how people today are less interested in overseas events and politics. As a reporter of foreign affairs my experience on returning to Scotland from somewhere like Egypt, Somalia or Syria has been the opposite of that. Last Saturday's Edinburgh event was a point in case. During an open session there was a stream of questions and comments from an audience that was informed, articulate and largely very progressive in its political and humanitarian take on a conflict in which we have been mired for more than a decade.

Writing in this newspaper recently, Alastair Osborne, Scottish Officer for the Labour Campaign for International Development, made the observation that "the SNP likes to paint a picture of an independent Scotland where, free from the shackles of the UK, Scotland can pursue its natural preference for progressive politics". What can be wrong, I wonder, with Scotland pursu­ing progressive politics in an inter­national context if, as Mr Osborne says, it is our nation's natural preference?

To my mind Scots have frequently differed on their take with the foreign policy position adopted by respective governments in Westminster, be they Labour, Conservative or Coalition. All too often such a foreign policy overseen and administered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has been out of kilter with the progressive political thinking of many Scots.

The UK Government's prosection of the Falklands conflict or wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have time and again revealed the extent to which the motives of Prime Ministers have been at odds with many Scots' political instincts.

As a journalist I'm also conscious of the impact this has on the way international events are reported here. Any foreign correspondent while covering an overseas story wants to relay it in a way that will be most meaningful and insightful to their audience back home.

Under the current arrangement it would probably be fair to say that many Scots are seriously short-changed on that front. What Scots so often receive by way of foreign coverage from their print and broadcast media is almost exclusively viewed through what one colleague once called a "London and Westminster media telescope".

Successive post-devolution Scottish governments have already established something of a reputation in certain areas of international development and related areas. How welcome then it is to hear that Scotland may soon build on that platform with the launch of its own independent international think-tank - as yet still to be formally named.

Whether it be the areas of international development, humanitarian relief provision or indeed transnational security alignments, now is as auspicious a moment as any for Scotland to lay out its own blueprint on foreign affairs - with or without a Yes vote next year.