The Brexit referendum opened up conflict between executive, parliamentary, national and popular sovereignties in the differing nations of the United Kingdom and had a noticeable effect on British disintegration.

While opinion polls in the past few months have recorded unprecedented and sustained support for independence in Scotland, economists said the short to medium term economic and fiscal difficulties of leaving the UK look substantially greater than they did when voters rejected the idea in 2014.

With every passing election, Scotland seems to move closer to independence. Investment Monitor explores the obstacles the country would face should it leave the UK.

The questions that would face an independent Scotland in the area of defence and security are political ones, rather than whether Scotland has the long-term capacity to defend its citizens or its immediate strategic neighbourhood. Of course, further analysis of defence capabilities is necessary, such as the need to explore the repositioning of NATO and Scotland’s role outwith its immediate strategic ambit, the impact of removing Trident on the SDF’s transition, and the impact of Brexit on an independent Scotland’s defence alliances and rUK relations.

, we have drawn together leading experts to examine the key issues, opportunities and challenges surrounding the prospect of independence. Much has changed since the 2014 referendum – most notably, the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. By providing factual information and impartial analysis, we hope that the book can support citizens to engage in debates and make up their own minds about Scotland’s future.

There is no question that an independent Scotland could run a sustainable budget. But like the UK, an independent Scotland would face major fiscal challenges both in the short and long run. Based upon the latest data, an independent Scotland is likely to face greater challenges than the UK as a whole (at least in the short-term).

In his article, Klaus Stolz (Chemnitz) focuses on the Scots’ decision in the Brexit referendum on June 23, 2016. For him, the result is not only representative of the relationship between Scotland and Europe, but also of the relationship between Scotland and the rest of Great Britain. That most Scots want to stay in the EU and thus deviate from the majority of the British is what he regards as part of a bigger domestic political division. Klaus Stolz does not consider Brexit as a cause, but as a possible catalyst for the disintegration of Great Britain.

This  chapter makes use of the lenses of citizenship to explore the interaction between the two dimensions of ‘troubled membership’. It locates legal change in its broader political context and focuses on contested boundaries of polity membership. This explores the content of a possible future Scottish citizenship, and examines the formal legal membership and political citizenship in respect of both the Scottish referendum and the UK’s referendum on EU membership.

This paper discusses Scotland’s relationship with the EU in the context of two different secession events. The first concerns the question of an independent Scotland’s EU membership in the event of Scotland’s secession from the UK. The second discusses the position of Scotland in the context of a UK in-out referendum on EU membership. This chapter concludes that in neither case should Scotland be forced to leave the EU against its will.

Brexit is just the latest and most obvious example of the democratic deficit which makes the Union so damaging to Scotland and renders it impossible for the people of Scotland to have any control over our country’s future.

The economic situation has been made even worse by the unfolding disaster that is Brexit. Scotland voted to remain in the EU, because it was manifestly in our best interests to do so. But our votes were ignored, along with our opinions, our economic drivers and our arguments for a softer Brexit which would have allowed us to stay in the single market.

A review of the economic and political circumstances around a second independence referendum.

Gethins looks at Scotland's foreign policy to better inform the debate about the country's future and its relationships with its neighbours near and far.