Description
Since 2014, the Scottish government is expanding its repertoire of external behaviour. This pattern is evidenced by the construction and pre-socialisation of Scotland’s NATO role. Possible membership to NATO for an independent Scotland has encountered significant disagreement within the SNP and disapproval from existing NATO members. The evolution of this role shows a subtle realignment between what acceptable and unacceptable behaviour for Scotland would be as a NATO member. The construction of the NATO role during 2012 shows that the SNP are attempting to independently define their place in the world. Its evolution shows how socialisation is affecting this NATO role. This shows the complexity of external affairs policy within Scotland, subtly changing the theoretical linkage between SNP identity and Scottish government external affairs behaviour.
By assessing speech acts within the SNP, this paper uses role theory to trace how influences including leader identity, party identity, constitutional limitations of the devolved framework have created the SNP’s NATO role and how pre-socialisation has affected the internal reconstruction of this role. When acting externally, Scotland encounters the behavioural expectations of this NATO role. These encounters pre-socialise Scottish desires within the expectations provided by others, thereby changing its NATO role.
