It is long past time that a full-time defence minister be appointed and the government prioritises what is the first duty of all governments – securing the state and its citizens.
Ireland’s external environment is undergoing change not seen since the 1940s. Now is the time for a laser-like focus on what matters to Ireland and its interests – Europe and the US.
Donald Trump’s Greenland talk cannot be dismissed as his usual ramblings this time and Ireland ought to consider the role it can play in the Arctic. It can start with the Arctic Council.
Israel’s decision to shutter its embassy in Dublin is a retrograde step, and, as Dan Mulhall, a 40-year veteran of diplomacy, put it when I spoke with him last week, “an overreaction” and a “bad day for diplomacy”.
Top Irish diplomat David O'Sullivan has served as EU ambassador to the US and is currently the bloc's sanctions envoy. He talks about stymying the Russian war machine, the return of Trump and Ireland's place in a volatile global landscape.
Irish diplomats are not campaigners for global justice. More hard-headedness and less seeking to be the most virtuous in the room are needed in the conduct of Ireland’s statecraft.
The Government will appoint an attaché based in San Francisco tasked with deepening ties with industry and academia in a region that’s core to Ireland’s FDI strategy.
The US policy of "my way or the highway" has dramatically failed in the Gulf States as Russia and China become firmly embedded across the Middle East. The long-term consequences for the West are significant.
A central architect of the Good Friday Agreement, Sean O hUiginn is considered a giant intellectually by those who worked with him on all sides. He talks about the personalities and the process, Anglo-Irish relations, and the nature of diplomacy.
RTÉ has appointed three new journalists to report on previously ignored global issues, the latest to receive backing from the Department of Foreign Affairs, and Green Party ministers have allocated funding to broadcasts about climate change. Personal experience shows the limits of this model.
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