Ireland and International Peacekeeping Operations 1960-2000 by Ishizuka Katsumi;Jeffery Keith;

Author:Ishizuka, Katsumi;Jeffery, Keith;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1679249
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

The EEC’s foreign policies in the Middle East and Ireland’s response

One significant aspect in a state’s foreign policies because of its membership of the EEC was its compulsory application to the political framework within the Community. In other words, it might be pointed out that before membership Ireland’s foreign policies might have been, as Nicholas Rees and others state, ‘the activity not of Ireland but of a few individuals who happened to be Irish’.48 Although this comment is a little too radical, ‘a few individuals’ in this context presumably means Eamon de Valera, Frank Aiken49 and a few others. EEC membership changed Ireland’s foreign policies from individual performances to a regional one. Membership and participation in political cooperation broadened the scope of Ireland’s foreign policies, something which would not have occurred otherwise. By adhering to regional organisations, states are enabled to tackle greater political issues, which are sometimes international ones, in their own parliaments. However, it was to be expected that Ireland’s active individualism as a neutral power would be affected on this occasion. Therefore, the questions in the context of this section are: to what extent did Ireland politically cooperate with the EEC, especially, in the 1970s and the 1980s, and to what extent did Ireland comply with EEC policy in terms of the Middle East issue?

As far as the first question is concerned, it should be noted that the EEC was not a monolith in political cooperation. For example, in terms of UN-voting behaviour, there was a tendency for EEC states to vote together on unimportant questions and apart on important ones, such as issues over the Middle East, decolonisation, economic topics and disarmament.50 Indeed, Ireland’s voting behaviour was one of the most independent among the Nine. For instance, during the thirtieth General Assembly, in 1975, Ireland as well as France, which topped the Nine, cast 39 non-unanimous votes.51 In terms of decolonisation issues, Ireland’s voting record, which showed a considerable number of positive votes for decolonisation, even after membership of the EEC, was also the furthest from the average figures within the Nine.52

This was due to several factors surrounding Irish foreign policy. First, the Irish government insisted that the development of an EEC foreign, security or defence policy could occur only as the Community advanced towards economic integration.53 The economic policy priority was recognised by a statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1981:

It would be easy to avoid the necessity of tackling the reality of our deep-seated economic problems by shifting the focus of further Community development towards political gestures in the intergovernmental framework … But to yield to such temptation would be to ignore the wisdom of the Community’s visionary founding fathers, who clearly perceived that successful economic, industrial and social integration would in time lay the basis for an ever closer union among the people of Europe and, eventually, real political union.54

Ireland could also enjoy its relatively independent political stance in the EEC as the only member not in NATO. This was fully appreciated at the meeting for foreign ministers of the EEC in London in 1981.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.