Since the conflict began in Ukraine, western governments have scrambled to form and maintain a united front against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression. They’ve imposed heavy sanctions and pledged military and humanitarian aid in support of Ukraine.
Ireland, despite being a small island nation, has played no small part in the diplomatic efforts in recent weeks, as a member of the European Union and with its seat on the UN Security Council. As Ireland is a neutral country, the government here has had to navigate the new geopolitical realities under that umbrella and this has caused much frustration and debate at home in recent weeks.
Speaking last month, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said, “Whilst militarily neutral, we’re not politically neutral”, a line repeated by senior ministers since this conflict began.
But what does Irish neutrality mean in the face of a fresh global crisis in 2022? Many would say that the Irish government bypassed neutrality 20 years ago by nailing its colours to the US mast by facilitating the landing of US military personnel at Shannon Airport. Can Ireland truly maintain a neutral stance with Russian troops at the door of Europe?
During Leaders’ Questions In the Dáil this week, Galway TD Catherine Connolly expressed her anger at recent comments around neutrality, saying “the policy of neutrality is not a passive policy. It’s a very active policy”. Here, former foreign affairs minister Charlie Flanagan and People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett set out their views on Irish neutrality in a changing world:
Charlie Flanagan: Ireland must get serious on Security and Defence…
IN FUTURE YEARS when the history of this century is being written, February 2022 will be marked as the month when President Putin of Russia unleashed the dogs of war in Europe.
His decision to invade Ukraine, supported by the Russian political, military and diplomatic establishment was prepared for and planned over a long period of time. President Putin rejected intense diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in favour of war. Indeed, President Macron of France has categorised Putin’s approach as “duplicitous.” Putin will be remembered as another monster of European history.
I have read President’s Putin long dissertation on Russian/Ukraine relations, published in July of last year. It is obvious from that piece he is an old-style Russian nationalist and imperialist.
He does not recognise the legitimacy of Ukrainian sovereignty and he wishes to impose his will, by force, on his neighbours. Putin claims that Ukrainians and Russians are family, but he has now turned the guns on his brothers and sisters. The invasion of Ukraine is the latest in a series of military adventures by President Putin and his henchmen. Chechnya, Georgia, Moldova, Syria, Crimea, Donbas, Kazakhstan, Belarus are all part of the same pattern of behaviour. Brutal military adventures across Europe have been accompanied by assassinations, poisonings and the suppression of internal dissent. At home, in Russia, arbitrary imprisonment has become commonplace.
The defence question
The invasion of Ukraine has sent shock waves around the world. The international response has been impressive on a variety of levels. Resistance by the Ukrainian army and public is stronger than Putin expected. There is evidence that some in the Russian military are questioning the invasion and many individual soldiers appear uncomfortable when challenged by Ukrainian citizens.
Despite the risk of imprisonment, there is also evidence of growing dissent within Russia. This is Putin’s war, not the war of the Russian people. It is unlikely however that President Putin will be removed from power in the short term. More likely is the danger however that he will double down on his naked military aggression as he meets resistance at home and abroad. He has already made sinister threats regarding nuclear weapons. His mindset is unlikely to change and he may prefer to go down in flames rather than a reversal of course.
The invasion of Ukraine has forced a dramatic reassessment of the threat and risk posed to Europe and the wider world by President Putin and Russia. Germany in particular has benefited from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the consequent peace dividend. However, it has become dependent on Russia for more than 50% of its gas supplies. During the last 30 years, it has also underinvested in defence. Its military capacity has been seriously eroded during the same period.
General Alfons Mas, Head of the German Army, in a frank comment last week said – “the army I have the honour of leading, is more or less empty-handed”. German Chancellor Scholz then announced a major investment programme in Germany’s military but of course, it will take time to deliver.
Irish neutrality
The tragedy in Ukraine has as strong message for Ireland and our approach to security and defence. Our geographic position and the fact that NATO provides security for Western Europe has given us the luxury of avoiding difficult choices. Effectively we have been freeloaders.
The Irish position on security and defence is no longer tenable. Ireland may not be aligned militarily but we are not politically neutral. We share a community of interest with the European Union. Our membership of the EU and our relationship with the United States is central to Ireland’s wellbeing and prosperity.
The future of the EU is also Ireland’s future. Membership of the EU brings responsibility to actively engage with the Common Security and Defence Policy of the EU. As chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, I have been engaged in discussions with other non-aligned members of the EU such as Sweden, Austria and Finland on their understanding of security and defence issues within the EU.
Now is the time that Ireland must look to our own defences. The recent report of the Commission on the Defence Forces has set the framework of that debate. The Report has set out what is required – the Defence Forces will be a joint military force capable of providing the people of Ireland with a safe and secure environment and enforcing and protecting Ireland’s sovereignty.
The report sets out what needs to be done to achieve this goal. It will involve major re-organisation of the Defence Forces and will also require significantly enhanced resources. At a minimum, our defence forces must be in a position to patrol and monitor Ireland’s airspace and our territorial waters and wider economic zone. We must also be in a position to defend ourselves against disruptive cyberattacks and misinformation campaigns aimed at destabilising our society and political system.
I intend the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, will be the forum where this report and related issues can be discussed in depth. Critical issues surrounding investment, recruitment, staff retention and career progression in the Defence Forces, can no longer be ignored or put on the long finger.
Peacekeepers
Ireland’s military has a proud record of peacekeeping across the world, and this must be maintained. Peacekeeping is a necessary and valuable contribution to security in many conflict zones.
Ireland’s capacity to participate in peacekeeping missions should not be subject to the veto of a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Russia and China affect much of Ireland’s Foreign Policy. Participation in UN peacekeeping missions should only need the consent of the government and the Dáil Eireann.
On Ukraine, US intelligence on the imminence of the Russian threat turned out to be accurate. European countries’ wishful thinking and their close economic and business ties with Russia may well have clouded their judgement. The US is now prominent in the pushback against Russian aggression. Only a few years ago former US President Donald Trump was contemplating withdrawing the US from NATO.
We live in uncertain times. Ireland must be willing to shoulder greater responsibility for our own security and defence and that of the European Union. I have learned from countries like Finland and Sweden that strong defences are the most effective security guarantees of all.
It’s important for Ireland to closely study the shifting ground on the part of the so-called neutral countries. Finland and Sweden have now been given access to all NATO meetings and briefings on Ukraine.
The invasion of Ukraine is a wake-up call for Europe, for Germany in particular, and for the wider world. It is also a wake-up call for Ireland. We must be prepared to learn from the daily tragedy in eastern Europe, and the scale of the risks and challenges the European Union must now confront.
Charles Flanagan TD is Chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs & Defence and a former Minister in both the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Justice.
================= On the other hand ===============
Richard Boyd Barrett: Ireland must defend its neutrality
THE WORLD IS rightly horrified by the brutal invasion of Ukraine instigated by Vladimir Putin. Bloody images of wrecked cities, dead bodies, people being forced to drink out of puddles and the ensuing humanitarian and refugee crisis shows us that Putin is a warmonger, a thug and a despot. We must be unequivocal in condemning Putin’s inexcusable and murderous actions in Ukraine.
We must all extend our solidarity to the Ukrainian people and redouble our efforts to extend humanitarian aid to the people in Ukraine and refuge to those who have been forced to flee their homes in terrifying conditions.
However, it is alarming that the terrible events in Ukraine are being used by a chorus of media commentators to suggest Ireland should abandon its military neutrality or, in some cases, call nakedly for NATO membership and participation in military alliances.
Worryingly, these sentiments are also echoed by senior figures and TDs in the government, particularly, within Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, at the Council of Foreign Affairs in New York this week, said Irish politics was changing in response to the Ukraine crisis and suggested a greater appetite for spending more on defence, greater co-operation with other EU countries and partnerships with NATO.
This follows similar comments from the Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, who said we “need to think about greater involvement in European defence,” – a defence, of course, directly aligned with NATO through PESCO. Taoiseach, Micheál Martin echoed the same theme, saying “Neutrality is a policy issue that can change at any time.”
This is very worrying language and points to the direction that the Irish government wishes to lead us. Already, military neutrality has been substantially undermined by Ireland’s support for US imperialist adventures in the Middle East.
Over two million US soldiers have passed through Shannon airport on the way to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Now it seems that the Ukrainian invasion will be used to further undermine neutrality and justify spending billions more on arms and weapons. The clamour to do so is especially ironic coming as it does from parties that have overseen a crisis in the pay and conditions of our ordinary defence personnel for decades.
Muddied waters
People Before Profit believes it is imperative that we protect our traditional policy of military neutrality and that abandoning that policy would be absolutely the wrong response to this crisis.
Ireland’s policy of neutrality has its origins in the foundation of our state when the 1916 Rising and the revolution of 1918-21 were precisely revolts against the imperial slaughter of World War 1. James Connolly famously led the Irish Citizens Army out to the GPO under the banner “for neither King nor Kaiser”, in other words, rejecting both imperial alliances in World War 1.
Ireland should not now abandon that proud, if sullied, tradition of opposing all warmongers and empires.
The solution to Putin’s bloody warmongering in Ukraine is not to align with military alliances such as NATO, whose leading members, particularly the US and UK, have equally bloody records of warmongering in Iraq and Afghanistan – wars that claimed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.
As we speak, NATO members, the US, UK and France arm and support the brutal dictatorship in Saudi Arabia, to conduct a war in Yemen that has claimed the lives of 377,000 people and brought 14 million people to the brink of famine.
The US and other European NATO members continue to arm, support and trade with Israel who have now been indicted by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for Apartheid, crimes against humanity, and systematic breaches of international law against the Palestinian people.
Double standards?
It is absolutely right that the Irish government have been so forthright in their condemnation of Putin’s warmongering in Ukraine. However, it demonstrates remarkable double standards that our government refuses to condemn equally the war crimes or crimes against humanity committed by the big western powers or their allies, such as Israel or Saudi, and indeed trenchantly resist calls for sanctions to be opposed on these regimes for their crimes.
The fact that Ireland is a neutral state gives us the moral credibility to speak out against all warmongering, occupation and oppression, whether it is Russia, the US, China, Israel, Saudi or anywhere else. It also makes Ireland as a country, and Irish soldiers on peace-keeping missions abroad, less of a target for military attack or terrorism.
The last thing that we need to do in the face of Putin’s warmongering in Ukraine is to encourage the idea that more militarism and arms spending is the solution, or to align with other military alliances whose leading powers have been and are guilty instigating and supporting equally horrific atrocities elsewhere in the world.
In fact, now more than ever, as we witness the disastrous consequences of Putin’s war in Ukraine, it is crucially important for Ireland as a neutral country to be a voice of opposition to all war, occupation, empire and the global arms trade.
Ireland must be the leading voice internationally for the de-escalation of conflict and for peace.
Richard Boyd Barrett is a People Before Profit TD for Dún Laoghaire in Dublin.
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