Scottish town briefly captured by poor country (7)
I believe the answer is:
belgium
'country' is the definition.
(Belgium is an example)
'scottish town briefly captured by poor' is the wordplay.
'scottish town' becomes 'elgin' (town in Scotland).
'briefly' means to remove the last letter.
'captured by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'poor' becomes 'bum' (both can mean poor quality).
'elgin' with its final letter taken off is 'elgi'.
'elgi' inserted inside 'bum' is 'BELGIUM'.
(Other definitions for belgium that I've seen before include "Home of EU headquarters" , "Glib emu to be found in the country" , "Country of Europe" , "Country north of France" , "European nation" .)