Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond’s proposed referendum for the independence of Scotland is an existential issue for the United Kingdom. Business Monitor Online recently published a primer on the subject, discussing the following questions: What will be the choices on offer to the Scottish electorate? When will the referendum be held? Who will vote in… [Read more]

Saturday, July 9, 2011 saw the birth of a new nation: South Sudan. It is not so often that a new sovereign state comes into being, so how South Sudan fares will certainly be worth watching from a political and economic risk point of view. Generally speaking, most of the nation states that have emerged… [Read more]

Perhaps the most noteworthy development of last week’s UK regional elections was the Scottish National Party (SNP)’s victory in establishing the first-ever single-party majority administration in the Scottish Parliament’s history. The most eye-catching part of the SNP’s policy platform is its commitment to independence, and the desire to hold a referendum on the issue during… [Read more]

One barely noticed (there was no mention even on Reuters) but potentially significant event in Central and Eastern Europe over the Christmas period was the declaration of independence by the Ruthenians from Ukraine. Lest you wonder who the Ruthenians are, they are an eastern Slavic ethnic group, one of a handful of peoples in Europe… [Read more]