In the 2014 referendum, defence and security was a minimal issue, and the SNP’s position on it was risk-free. Andy Maciver argues that this is no longer the case, and says the First Minister needs to prepare his party to embrace our geopolitical influence

This is not the first time I have quoted Vladimir Lenin in my Herald column. It sits uneasily with me, and I should perhaps find other phraseology from another historical figure, or indeed invent my own, but Lenin’s line that “there are decades where nothing happens, then there are weeks where decades happen” seems irresistibly apt over a century later.

Venezuela, Greenland, Iran - surely decades have happened in the last week.

Voters in this country are generally disinterested in foreign affairs - or, at least, they have no real history of casting votes in accordance with matters outside our borders. However, that may not always be the case, and it may not be the case if Scots have another chance to cast a vote on whether or not they wish Scotland to be an independent country.

In the 2014 referendum, matters pertaining to Scotland’s defence and security had relatively little airtime. Russia has just invaded Crimea but, as we now know to our cost, the international community crossed the other side of the road and pretended everything was fine. There were no other international incursions affecting us in a meaningful way. The world had largely recovered - at least on the face of it - from the financial crisis. The UK was in the EU. The White House was stable. The Middle East is never stable, and there was an escalation in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, as well as problems in Syria and Yemen, but in the grand scheme of that region violence was neither at........

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