The Westphalian system exposed it's massive flaw not in 1914 but at the turn of the 19th century. The Westphalian states could not stop a rampaging Napoleon fro

The Westphalian system exposed it's massive flaw not in 1914 but at the turn of the 19th century. The Westphalian states could not stop a rampaging Napoleon from conquering vast swathes of territory until marched 500,000 men without proper supplies into a Russian winter. Ukraine is an excellent example of the flaws of NATO - the system of small countries has to be plausible in their desire to stand up for each other. And the Baltic states have just cause to be very nervous these days - it is American backing that secures them, not the smaller NATO members who don't even meet their 2% of GDP spending pledge. The problem of the Scottish debate regarding international relations is that it is so focused on 2003 Iraq. It forgets the many good international engagements the UK has been a part of, and the potential future ones it could. Only powerful countries get to make mistakes on the magnitude of Iraq. An independent Scotland would not be able to look at something like Bosnia, Kosovo or Sierra Leone and be able to intervene if it wanted to. Alternatively see a certain Team America speech about various bits of the anatomy...