Last month we sat down with Beyond Borders Scotland’s founder and executive director, Mark Muller Stuart QC:

Mark, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Yes, my name’s Mark Muller Stuart and I am the Executive Director of Beyond Borders. First and foremost, I am an international lawyer, a QC that specialised in human rights and also international legal issues concerning terrorism and humanitarian law, and I’ve become an expert in conflict resolution.

Beyond Borders, what’s the general idea of the organisation?

Beyond Borders was set up in 2010 after I had a range of discussions with a number of senior statesmen and stateswomen in Scotland. In the past 20 years, Scotland has been through profound political and cultural changes, not least with the setting up of the Scottish Parliament and the unique constitutional devolution settlement. So we thought that the time was right to create a new Scottish initiative using Scotland’s unique political and cultural heritage to try and promote greater understanding between nations and also different cultures around the world.

From my travels around the world I learned that many different people and nations and groups are profoundly interested in what has happened here in Scotland. If you talk to Kurds or Tamils or you talk to Palestinians, or even people in Syria and Libya, and now the Ukraine, people are extraordinarily interested in issues to do with autonomy and devolution: issues to do with how you keep your own nation or your group’s culture alive and vibrant. And Scotland provides a fantastic non-violent example of how to do that.

So what does the work of Beyond Borders entail exactly?

Beyond Borders works across six different mediums: film, visual arts, performance arts, dialogue, heritage and literature; and so we have a literary and thought festival in the third week of August. Additionally we run visual arts festivals throughout the year and put together a film festival during the Edinburgh Festival in August. But we also do a numerous dialogue and mediation initiatives, throughout the year, here at Traquair House in the Scottish Borders, and also around the world, where we bring together different parties involved in conflicts to try discuss some of the themes that underlay those conflicts, with a view to help resolve them.

Can you tell us more about the festival?

The festival is called the Beyond Borders International Festival of Literature and Thought, which in essence is a wonderful international festival where lots of people from around the world, whether they’re writers, politicians, cultural leaders, diplomats or filmmakers, come together at Traquair with well-known Scottish broadcasters like Jim Naughtie, Alan Little and Magnus Linklater to discuss some of the most important and interesting issues of our time.

But, it’s not just all about serious debate at Beyond Borders by any stretch of the imagination. It’s right, many of our international themes cover very difficult issues, but we also have satire and comedy and a range of different activities. You can join literary and science walks through the beautiful nature of the Borders and take part in the cycle rides exploring the greater surrounding of Traquair. The setting of Traquair House and the Scottish Borders adds great value to what we do at Beyond Borders. Not only is Traquair House one of the most extraordinary houses in Scotland, with its unique 900 years of history, but it is also situated in the Borders between England and Scotland, where people have been moving between cultures for many, many centuries. And so therefore, these borderlands provide a perfect platform for people from different continents and cultures to come, mix together and discuss some common themes and ideas that frame our world today.

What makes this festival so different to others?

I think we’ve got a unique little product here. You know, I love going to book festivals myself, like the Hay Festival or the Edinburgh Book Festival, but I thought there was a space for a different type of festival. And so we decided to create a new and, we hope, innovative little festival, which brings together, not simply writers and broadcasters, but different mediums and influences from around the world. Part of the wonder of the festival is that most participants come and stay the whole three days, which makes it different to other book festivals. And so there is a private and intimate element to the festival, which gives people the time to speak to each other and exchange ideas about a whole range of issues.

How would you like the festival to develop? Well, I do like the festival as it is. But I think there’s more that we can do with the festival at the moment, in terms of capturing its magic. For example: taking more interviews, more videos, organise more unique little gatherings around Traquair and expand on using the house and the landscapes much more. We want do a whole of a lot more with new media, so that we reach a lot more people around the world and try to create the intimate atmosphere digitally. And I think the most extraordinary future development is taking this type of festival and transplanting it into other small nations around the world. We are already in conversation with a number of people and organisations about establishing similar types of colourful events in different countries, ensuring that the level of thinkers and speakers remains high and creating the inclusive feel between the setting, the speakers and the audience. That’s a very, very exciting prospect.

And with the festival taking place just a month before the Scottish Referendum, is it going to play a big part in this year’s festival?

Yes, inevitably so. 2014 is going to be an amazing year for Scotland and it’s going to be an amazing year for cultural and political debate. Also the Commonwealth Games are happening this year and we are lucky enough to have the Secretary General of the Commonwealth coming to the Beyond Borders Festival together with a whole range of Commonwealth writers and artists and filmmakers. And then of course we’ve got the Referendum. The Referendum could define the history of Scotland for the next century. So we want to provide a platform where Scottish people can debate about which path Scotland should take.