Building-up Irish Defence: The Commission on the Defence Forces
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- Опубликовано: 27 авг 2024
- The global security environment is changing rapidly. Not only are the threats greater, but they are more complex and more kaleidoscopic. Climate change, Cyber-threats, terrorism, as well as a revanchist Russia have made the world a more dangerous place to live in. To meet these challenges, the Irish Defence Forces are playing greater variety of roles in order to protect the Irish state and serve on crisis management missions. On 9 February 2022, the Commission on the Defence Forces released its report examining the threats the Irish State will face, and made recommendations ranging from funding, and capability acquisition to strategic HR, on how to enhance the Defence Forces. This panel discusses the Irish threat environment and analyses the recommendations made by the Commission in its report.
About the Speaker:
Renata Dwan has been the Deputy Director and Senior Executive Officer of Chatham House since 2020. From 2018 until 2020, she was Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in Geneva. During her years in the UN, Dr Dwan worked on peace operations and complex emergencies in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Mali and Syria.
Ben Tonra is a professor of International Relations at UCD School of Politics and International Relations. There, Professor Tonra teaches, researches and publishes in European foreign, security and defence policy, Irish foreign, security and defence policy and International Relations theory.
Recorded on the 31st of May
Very well summarized, Renata and Ben. In particular I fully agree with Ben‘s comments. Looking at this from a Swiss perspective, I can see many similarities. The public and government here in my home country are also very reluctant to accept the fact that the peace dividend times after 1989 (fall of Berlin wall) have come to a hard stop. Small neutral conntries such as Ireland and Switzerland have limited options available. Ben has outlined them brilliantly. Many thanks for this excellent contribution. Ireland and Switzerland should establish a platform to jontly address these existential questions.
Yeah, I never recognized how vulnerable neutrality necessarily implies a nation to be until Russia started in lately. It chilled my blood a little for the sakes of the people in these countries when I found out how defenseless a lot of places are. I guess taking peace for granted has snuck up behind us all and it’s important to thoughtfully approach the need to correct that without inadvertently creating an arms race, which is another danger in times like these. It may be unavoidable, in fact. I guess we are going to find out as things unfold. God bless the world, and bless our desire to justly balance defense with peaceful relations among nations.
Well I guessed right, that there would be some specious reference to Brexit within the first 10 minutes!
Very disappointed that a debate on the “Commission on the Defence Forces” largely ignores it.
Spends a lot of time talking about geopolitical, economic and neutrality.
The CoDF is about the Irish State having the means to defend the State
They have to secure all of those things to keep the state functional. Modern siege warfare is what they are contending with when they bring those topics into the discussion. It’s possible that I’m misunderstanding your objection though. Pardon me, please, if so.
@@animula6908 CODF didn’t look at all at the level of threat just the types of threats and what could be done to mitigate them
the points referred to at the 46-47 minute mark are central. reverse the order in which they are referred to and they answer the question raised of why the matter is not discussed and options (62mins onwards) not considered.
Also I am proud of our navel service, air corps & army personnel… but we have to move with the times … our radar systems in the air corps is not up today with military. We rely on other nations (England) to defend our air defence.
It’s embarrassing that it took fishermen to tackle the Russian navy. I served in the irish naval service, our naval service it’s under powered lack of manpower, second hand ships from new Zealand . Not good enough to patrol of the west cost of Ireland 🇮🇪 in my opinion. Inshore patrol’s only, pc9 turbo prop , trainer aircraft is not adequate, yes I understand Ireland’s got a housing problem/ education & health care but for equal size nations we spend less on defence of our nation that other nations.
From the U.K. to ROI, ina word, contempt.
😂Typical dump Brit 🇮🇪
Overwhelmingly most Brits like Ireland and the Irish.
Meh, the UK doesn't matter anymore.
Who is going to attack Ireland? and for what purpose?
Remember when the HSE systems were taken down? That cyber attack originated in Russia and the Defence Forces for a key part of Irelands defence against such attacks.
Russian aircraft flying in Irish controlled airspace without transponders on. We cannot track or follow them and that is a serious safety and security issue.
The Army provides the states Explosive Ordance Disposal.
What if in the future Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are reunited? In that case the Defence Forces would play a key role in the security of the state.
Not to mention the Air Ambulance, search and rescue and support to the civil powers that the Defence Forces provide
@@hippy1922 I agree with your points on civil defence and the Security of the state, particularly with regard to a possible united Ireland.
My concern is wether Ireland is being manoeuvred under the pretext of "Big Bad Russia" into joining a European army in the interests of
the European Union But not necessarily in the interests of the Irish Republic.
@williamcannon7262 I don't think there will be a European Army. I think what it will be is something like we have now with the Nordic Battlegroup. I think the decision weather or not to deploy Irish soliders will not be made by Europe but Ireland.
Secondly I don't disagree with a European Union defensive pact. We are a part of the EU and have benefitted hugely from it and surely it is worth defending. There would have to be very strong safe guards to ensure it was a defensive pact only and decisions on deployments of soliders even for peacekeeping or humanitarian missions must remain with national parliaments.
Thirdly Russia has always been flying aircraft into Irish controlled airspace without transponders and we currently have no ability to even track let alone intercept them. Russia isn't doing this to attack Ireland par say but to attack NATO. Currently the RAF intercept them so despite your dislike of NATO they already protect Irish skies. Don't get me wrong I'm not advocating Ireland join NATO I'm totally against it.
But anytime we talk about investing in properly funding our Defence Forces people say its a stepping stone to joining NATO while the irony is if we don't properly fund the Defence Forces we will actually rely more on NATO.
Let's also remember we have a huge amount of undersea cables in Irish controlled waters. These are vital not just to the World economy but also Irelands economy. So again if someone was to damage these cables even if the target wasn't Ireland we may suffer some of the consequences. So I would argue we have an international responsibility and its in the national interest to keep both Irish controlled waters and Irish controlled airspace safe.
To do that we need a properly funded Defence Forces. That doesn't mean huge fleets of ships and aircraft. It means a small number of fast jets so we can have an ability to police our skies 24hrs a day. It means ships capable of monitoring both under sea activity and aerial activity and the ability to engage effectively any threats.
@@hippy1922 Thank you for your detailed and interesting reply