David Scheffer:
Thank you very much. Hello, everyone. I'm David Scheffer, visiting senior fellow on international law at the Council on Foreign Relations. And I've been a longtime student of Scottish devolution and aspirations for independence from the United Kingdom. We have the privilege today of being joined by Michael Russell, who is cabinet secretary for the Constitution, Europe and External Affairs of the Scottish Government, and he is a constituency member of the Scottish Parliament, representing Argyll and Bute. He was raised in Troon in Ayrshire and educated at Edinburgh University and has lived in Argyll for over 20 years. Mr. Russell was previously Minister for Environment from 2007 until 2009 and then served as Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution before moving to the role of Cabinet Secretary for Education, which he held until 2014.