Irish Defense Policy: White Paper Published

http://www.defence.ie/website.nsf/document+id/93191A155924DAD5802570C8005065D3

Ireland in the International Arena: A Weekly Review

Ireland in the International Arena 1: February 8/ 2008

  

Chad

 Irish troop deployment as part of the EUFOR TCHAD/RCA mission has been delayed for a second time. The earlier hold-up was due to a lack of equipment and support. Once that was resolved, the sudden rebel onslaught on N’Djamena was a further obstacle. The Chadian Government has urged early EU intervention. France is backing President Déby. Some newspaper letter writers are questioning whether the mission should go ahead if its role might be supportive of French policy in practice. 

Lisbon Treaty

The Government continues to argue that the Treaty advances Irish and European interests. It insists on marginalizing the opposition as dominated by extremist parties, predicting a 2:1 victory in a likely May referendum. A number of EU states, including France, have recently ratified Lisbon through parliamentary means, having denied citizens a direct say on the document. Many supporters and opponents of the Treaty are pushing a strong anti-American line of argument in the debate.  

U.S. Election

As the Democratic Party primaries remain undecided, Irish media and political circles are openly backing Senator Clinton. There is little effort to establish constructive Irish links to the campaigns of Barack Obama or John McCain, both of whom still have reasonable chances for November at this stage. 

Ireland and the Palestinians

Liberal Senator David Norris is campaigning to highlight the humanitarian plight of Palestinians in Gaza, as Israel appears to punish them collectively for the extremist stance and terror attacks of Hamas. Norris insists that the EU should take a lead in the peace process, in spite of America’s decisive hand in influencing Israel. The EU is rather irrelevant to Israeli calculations because of the overtly pro-Arab stance of most of its members.