Irish Neutrality

The basic idea behind neutrality is simple - a neutral country must not take part in a war between other countries. This prohibits providing any military support, including materiel, intelligence, and free passage through national territory. This is a definition which is recognized by international law.

The reasoning behind neutrality is also simple - small countries often have no stake in the wars fought between larger powers, and regardless of outcome have more to lose than gain by participating. Smaller countries are also often used as pawns by larger powers, and may be manipulated into suffering significant losses for the causes of others.

Neutrality is, therefore, both an expression of sovereignty – the ability to make independent choices in the national interest – and a tool of survival, allowing smaller countries to avoid the large-scale loss of life and infrastructure that great power conflicts inevitably bring.

Ireland operates what might be seen as a relatively weak policy of military neutrality. Ireland does not participate in conflicts, but is party to certain non-combat military agreements, such as the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and NATO's Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. These agreements focus on humanitarian efforts, such as peacekeeping (for which Ireland has an excellent track record) and disaster relief.

Ireland, unlike countries such as Switzerland and Austria, does not enshrine legal protection for neutrality either in its constitution or other laws. This lack of legal protections is a weakness, and one that comes despite strong public support for neutrality. Without such strict legal protections, Ireland's neutrality is subject to the whims of passing governments, and vulnerable to external influences.

Today, decisions are being made, behind closed doors and without public scrutiny, about the militarization of Ireland and its integration into the broader European, American-lead security order. Recently, it was announced that spending on the Irish defense forces would more than double. New orders will be placed for advanced military hardware, including fighter jets, armored vehicles and naval equipment. Indeed, these moves come as part of a complete re-organization of the Irish defense forces. This re-organization is to be advised by the US, and will occur via the oversight of the Pentagon's Institute for Security Governance (ISG).

The Pentagon's Institute for Security Governance (ISG) is a US defense agency specifically tasked with "[delivering] Security Cooperation education, training, and advising in support of the National Defense Strategy and America's allies and partners". The ISG has been mischaracterized in certain Irish media reports as a company or a consultancy. It is neither. The ISG is an instrument of US geopolitics, and a means to achieve its strategic objectives. Indeed, this is stated quite clearly in the ISG's own mission statement.

The ISG is not a company, nor a consultancy, it is a US government agency under the direction of the pentagon.

Ireland does not have far to look for examples of the fates of smaller nations drawn into the conflicts of the great powers. Indeed, we need only look backward into our own history.

One hundred and twenty five years ago, in a time when the official name of our country was still "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland", that so-named country chose to embark on a war of imperial conquest in another far away country, which is today called South Africa. Six Irish regiments fought in that war. All were deployed to higher risk engagements than their English counterparts. Each suffered disastrous casualty rates. Chief amongst them were the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

Today, at the north end of St. Stephen's green in Dublin, stands the fusiliers arch, where the names of each of the fallen of these regiments is carved in stone. A complicated symbol - a British monument to dead Irish soldiers, at once a symbol of Imperial victory and mourning. At the time of its construction Ireland was beginning the throes of its struggle for independence, leading to the arch being popularly labelled "traitor's gate". How fitting that the fusiliers arch should not only survive the war of independence and the Irish civil war and all troubles since, but come to be what perhaps it always was - a symbol of Irelands misuse at the hands of those more powerful than us.

From a purely practical standpoint, Russia, which is the threat to which Ireland and the rest of Europe are currently reacting, is not a military threat to Ireland.

There are several reasons for this. Firstly Ireland shares no land borders with any states other than the UK via Northern Ireland. Ireland is also relatively far from Russia and her allies. The Island nature of the country and distance provides a natural defensive barrier, making any would be invasion more costly and logistically difficult.

Secondly Ireland is of limited strategic benefit. Connections to mainland Europe must be made by sea or by air, frustrating power projection. Ireland has no significant natural resources or manufacturing base that may be of aid to an enemy eyeing European conquest. The assets likely most valuable to a foreign power are our water and airspace, which at present anyone is effectively free to violate anyway.

The implication is obvious: the Russians are not going to invade. US security integration, instead of warding off a Russia massing on the border, will actually make us more of a target. Our country will have effectively become a US asset.

That this actually increases the danger to Ireland rather than decreasing it underscores the nature of these plans – these decisions are not Irish initiated, Irish directed or serving Irish goals.

Ireland faces a conundrum: we are a small country, and one that has a history of poverty. Our economy is open and vulnerable to external disruption – our country still bears the scars of the great recession and the untimely death of the Celtic tiger. Defense spending has been historically difficult to justify.

Yet, unfortunately, independence does not come without strength. In order to be truly sovereign, and in order to avoid military and intelligence colonization by greater powers, we must build our defenses. The important point is that we must do it ourselves, for our own reasons, and dictated by our own strategy.

Ireland must build an independent, non-aligned military and intelligence apparatus, one that treats all external threats and unwelcome influences equally. Threats to us exist, but they do not take the form that is most often advertised. Ireland is vulnerable to foreign influence and information warfare: the manipulation of our society to serve the ends of others – exactly as is here, but by other actors.

Ireland is also at risk of being used as a staging post or for intelligence gathering against the UK or the EU, or being manipulated by adversaries of the west towards other goals that degrade western interests. Being used for the ends of any state other than our own risks making us the target of someone else's aggression. We must avoid being a piece in the game entirely.

The solution to this problem is, of course, neutrality. Refusal to bow to anyone or to be used by anyone, and to respond forcefully to any such attempts. In order to do this, we must have both the strength and the will to enforce it, regardless of the cost.

The enshrinement of hard neutrality as a core value of the Irish state, via constitutional amendment. Without protection in law, our neutrality is meaningless. We must, at the earliest possible moment, before any of these plans are realized, hold a referendum to add such a provision to the Irish constitution.

Ireland must partner with other neutral states in order to build an independent, Irish oriented military. External expertise is required, but must come from sources other than great powers. Switzerland and Austria are two militarised neutral European countries than can aid in this effort with respect to planning, training and procurement.

Military hardware must be procured from European sources only. If possible, domestic production of some military assets must begin. This avoids both the deliberate limitation of acquired hardware from great powers and a shortened supply chain. For example, buying US military hardware creates dependencies on the US for training, technical support, repair, upgrades and replacement parts. It forces a deeper integration into the US security apparatus, and therefore threatens to influence the direction Ireland might take in the future.

Steep. Values are things that cost you. If you wont pay the price, then you don't really believe in anything.

Unfortunately, the realities of the world we live in mean that the solution is not pacifism. Weakness means becoming a means to someone else's end.

To avoid this, Ireland must present a credible defense posture. One strong enough to be a deterrent. We will need to recruit and train soldiers, sailors, airmen and intelligence analysts. We will need to equip them with all the same tools and weapons platforms that are currently suggested, and more. In order for Ireland to mount this credible defense posture, we will need to increase defense spending even further, beyond 2% of GDP (or perhaps GNP, as it is more suitable to the open nature of the Irish economy).

Not at all. Ireland and the United States have strong cultural and economic ties, and a longstanding tradition of friendship. This friendship is embedded in our shared history - in the 1840s, the great Irish famine caused the death or emigration of fifty percent of the country's population. An event from which Ireland's population has never fully recovered to this day.

While famine ravished Ireland it was to America that the coffin ships sailed, offering what was often the only hope, and the only country of refuge. Without that refuge, millions more would have died in Irish fields and workhouses. These ragged refugees would eventually become US citizens, and today their descendants number approximately 31.5 million – a number six times higher than the current population of Ireland, and accounting for around 10% of the US population.

Nevertheless, we are not a tool of anyone else's ambitions. We did not break free of the British Empire so that we might become part of the American one instead. Ireland's will is to be free – to chart our own course, to set our own values and achieve those goals that we set for ourselves.