When casting an eye across the years since 1999, it is clear that devolution has allowed Scotland's distinctive culture to manifest itself in the political arena.
What has emerged has often been remarkable, and of the many successes, we can look to have encouraged a more ambitious sense of what might be possible for Scotland.
Progress in developing a greater outward perspective has been somewhat less impressive. In terms of how it regards and discusses the international arena, the Scottish landscape has remained static. Scotland is bereft of an independent international politics research institute or a global affairs magazine which seeks to analyse events through a Scottish prism.
I am writing as the director of a new think tank which seeks to fill this gap. Scotland International is an independent research institute - unaffiliated to any political party, ideology or educational establishment - whose remit is to analyse and opine on international politics, with a particular focus on issues which have significance to Scotland.
We are committed to providing authoritative analysis not only of Scotland's domestic politics, economics and security, but also of international issues which have relevance to Scotland and its interests. We are committed to offering quality analysis of issues such as humanitarian operations and peacekeeping, North Atlantic relations, EU politics, nuclear disarmament, environmental protection and democracy promotion, and to do so in a way which is more cognisant of the Scottish sensibility and outlook.
As an institution, SI is impartial on the issue of Scottish independence, a stance which we hope is evidenced by the ideological spread of our affiliates. Across our advisory board and our Institute Fellows, SI is peopled by individuals who support independence, who oppose it, and who are impartial. We hope this variety will be expressed in our publications and that the varied views of the articles we publish will cement our standing as an institute whose analysis of Scotland's great debate can be trusted.
As director, it is my hope that politicians, policy practitioners and commentators on all sides of the debate will respond positively to offers to publish through SI.
As an institute, SI is well-placed to offer analysis of politics, domestic and international. We we have an excellent collection of affiliated scholars who are conducting top-level research.
The willingness of these individuals to affiliate themselves to SI and to write for us will, we hope, ensure the quality and the appeal of our work. In the coming weeks, we will be releasing articles and blog pieces examining issues such as intelligence and spying, Nato and nuclear disarmament.
In keeping with our aim to act as a facilitator of political research and dialogue, we welcome articles and blog submissions from politically-informed individuals and we will be soliciting contributions from individuals who demonstrate proficiencies in fields that we wish to publish in.
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