The United Kingdom represents a fascinating case to study in what ways sovereignty and statehood is narrated by various political actors because of the UK’s composite nature as a nation-state, which, at the same time, is in constant negotiation about its place in the world. At the UK level, the relatively high degree of Euroscepticism and ‘Euro-indifference’ on the part of the British public and civil society appears to strengthen the UK’s legitimacy as the state vis-à-vis the EU, a phenomenon which has been widely observed across the EU member states to a differing degree. A similar development can also be observed in the UK political actors’ response to globalisation. However, in Scotland, it has been observed that recent nationalism has aligned itself with the EU in questioning the legitimacy of the UK to govern Scotland. While the value of sovereignty and statehood, the ultimate prise any nationalist would crave for, is not dismissed, current Scottish political discourse has incorporated the re-conceptualisation of sovereignty while it remains essentially nationalist, therefore narrating sovereignty and statehood differently from the UK actors. The paper reviews political discourses surrounding sovereignty and statehood at both the UK and Scottish level. At the Scottish level, the Nationalist and unionist discourses are separately examined to demonstrate the impact of multi-level governance on the way sovereignty and statehood is talked about.
