FOREIGN POLICY IS the sum of the strategies and tactics that governments use to guide relations with each other. In Ireland, there has traditionally been a high degree of consensus surrounding matters of foreign policy, which has seen them typically feature only on the margins during election campaigns.
In the run-up to the forthcoming General Election, given the turbulent geopolitical context in which Ireland finds itself, foreign policy must be a much more central part of public discourse than has been the case in the past. The re-election of Donald Trump, and the implications this will have for the world, only increases the urgency of this need.
For decades, much of Ireland’s foreign policy has focused on matters including trade relations, the country’s involvement in multilateral organisations, and overseas development. Understandably, relations with the UK also absorbed much diplomatic and political energy for most of the 20th Century and made up a central part of the State’s foreign policy.
Today, Ireland’s trade policy is determined at the level of the European Union (EU). Given its often arcane nature, limited attention is typically paid to trade policy in public discourse. Debates tend to be confined to experts, researchers and campaigners, and relate to important but often technical matters regarding the terms and conditions of trade with different parts of the world. The Occupied Territories Bill, which would ban trade with territories deemed occupied under international law, can be seen as the exception that proves the rule, as it has obtained renewed attention as the devastating consequences of the war in Gaza continue to play out.
Development activities are traditionally another mainstay of Irish foreign policy, and Ireland enjoys a well-earned reputation as a leader in this field. Research published by Dóchas finds that three in four Irish people believe that providing overseas aid is important, with one in three favouring an increase in the level of government spending.
Meanwhile, Ireland maintains an unbroken record of service in UN peacekeeping since the country’s first deployment in 1958. This includes some 340 personnel currently deployed with the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon. Similar to the country’s commitment the development assistance, Irish involvement in UN missions, receives widespread support from the citizenry.
Ireland’s commitment to multilateralism is perhaps most clearly displayed by the country’s membership of the EU since 1973, which has provided an outlet for Ireland to express and develop its foreign policy priorities. There remains little organised political opposition to EU membership in Ireland and, all told, the population remains among the most supportive of their country’s place in the EU.
The historical lack of emphasis on foreign policy in Ireland is of course also partly explained by geography, which places the country at a physical remove from many of the major conflicts over recent centuries.
The fact that Ireland was not a colonial power and has been historically militarily neutral, has also helped to shape relatively congenial relations with many countries, especially in the Global South.
Taken together, all this contributes to the high degree of consensus that there is when it comes to matters of foreign policy in Ireland, which has seen it feature only peripherally at best in election coverage and political party manifestoes.
Yet, new geopolitical fissures are emerging that challenge this consensus. Issues ranging from the prospect of cyber and hybrid warfare, the fallout from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the machinations in US politics and the potential impact this might have on trade relations, demographic change and migration, climate change and renewed great power competition including the rise of China are all reshaping the geopolitical context. Ireland finds itself in this context.
It is an understatement to say that we are at a moment of enormous geopolitical tension and contestation by any historical standard, and the withdrawal of the UK and the changing character of politics in the US has only highlighted Ireland’s new geopolitical position and potential vulnerability.
All governments, including Ireland’s, must decide how to react to challenges such as these. Notably, the Irish Government has already moved to strengthen its diplomatic networks over recent years and has been pursuing a more expansive foreign policy agenda. The Government’s 2018 Global Ireland Strategy aims to double Ireland’s diplomatic footprint by 2025. Over the past five years, 19 new diplomatic missions have been opened, including in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, and Serbia, with missions in Islamabad, Milan and Munich to open this year, while Dublin has recently welcomed new diplomatic missions from the likes of Barbados, Iraq, and Sweden.
Ireland’s term on the UN Security Council (2021-2022), its ongoing campaign for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, and initiatives such as the Government’s 2023 Strategy for Partnership with Small Island Developing States, also sees Ireland staking out a new geopolitical position, and one that is ever closer to the centre of global affairs.
Notably, Ireland also finds itself departing meaningfully from some EU partners regarding the ongoing violence in the Middle East, with Ireland among the most critical voices globally when it comes to Israeli’s ongoing campaign in the region.
Clearly, given the many geopolitical challenges that countries like Ireland now face, alongside the increasing scale of Ireland’s foreign policy enterprise, matters of foreign policy must be subject to robust public scrutiny.
Fundamentally, at election time, it is for politicians and candidates to inform the public about where they stand on the big questions of the day. Additionally, media and commentators must promote informed and robust discussion around matters of foreign policy and must ensure they are central to coverage and debate in advance of the forthcoming General Election.
Barry Colfer is Director of Research at the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), a Dublin-based public policy and international affairs think tank and a research fellow in politics at the University of Cambridge. He holds a PhD in politics from Cambridge and previously held postdoctoral fellowships at Oxford, Harvard, and the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence.
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