Living as we do in a global village, no nation is an island. Understanding even very local issues in Scotland is often impossible without a grasp of the wider political and legal framework within which decisions are made, a framework which has Scottish, UK, European and global dimensions. Starting broad and finishing narrow, this chapter sketches four separate, though closely linked, aspects of the wider political and planning framework, and explores the evolving policy context in which Scottish environmental management operates. It begins with a discussion of Scotland's place on the global stage in addressing the climate and biodiversity crises, before turning to the impacts and legacy of the UK's membership of the European Union (EU). The chapter then considers the place of Scotland within the UK and the nature of land use planning in Scotland.

2.1 SCOTLAND ON THE GLOBAL STAGE

Despite its location on the Atlantic fringe of Eurasia, Scotland has maintained strong links with the countries of mainland Europe for many centuries (Smout 1986a), most notably through the 'auld alliance' with France, England's historic enemy. In fact, trade across the water considerably predates the existence of Scotland as a nation state. Notwithstanding this long history of interaction with the peoples and countries of Europe, the day-to-day experience of the Scottish people throughout much of history remained largely unaffected by events further afield except in times of war or invasion. Only during the last three centuries, with the rise of the British Empire, has the overseas world come into sharp focus for ordinary Scots, and only during the five decades since the UK's accession into the EU and its subsequent exit in 2020 (Section 2.2) has that wider world come to determine many aspects of people's lives. The processes of globalisation and Europeanisation have therefore ensured that fewer and fewer aspects of Scottish life can be understood without reference to economic, political and environmental trends in the global village.