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This chapter examines the interaction of the four narratives when faced with the medium-term foreign policy issue of reconciling Irish security and defence policy with the post-Cold War development of Europe's security architecture. It suggests that the four identity narratives are clearly competing for their respective claims about the nature of Irish security and defence policy and its institutional expression in Europe's contemporary security architecture. This chapter also discusses the nature of policy deriving from this discursive contest and describes how the positions of the narratives ebb and flow over time.

This chapter reviews the structures, both formal and informal, through which democratic control is exercised over the formulation and conduct of Irish foreign policy. It analyses in detail the parliamentary contribution to Irish foreign policy formulation and considers public engagement in the policy process. This chapter evaluates the strength of democratic currents and their potential to transform the formulation and conduct of foreign policy. It also considers the role of narratives in Irish foreign policy construction and the way in which different narratives may become evident in the assumptions of particular sets of foreign policy actors.

This chapter looks at one of the earliest and arguably most powerful narratives in Irish foreign policy—that of the Irish Nation. With this narrative it is easily understood how and why Irish foreign policy has been frequently characterised as being essentially a creature of Ireland's bilateral relationship with Great Britain and therefore subject to the overwhelming domination of a single narrative rooted in the struggle for independence. While this narrative of the Irish Nation dominated Irish foreign policy at the state's foundation, it later came to be challenged as a result of contradictions from within that narrative as well as the development of competing narratives.

This chapter establishes the parameters of the second great identity narrative in Irish foreign policy discourse—that of Ireland as a Global Citizen. It considers how a vision of Ireland and Irish foreign policy has been constructed which values and prioritises a sense of Irish mission in the wider global community. It explains that this narrative is rooted in perceptions of Ireland's global mission, its contributions to other nations on other continents and in its sense of opportunity was certainly a positive fillip to an otherwise introverted and sometimes parochial sense of self and it also offered new avenues of expression and international participation and contributed significantly to a greater self-confidence.

This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the role of national identity on Irish foreign policy. It explains that each narrative outlined Irish foreign policy history in a different way and discusses how a particular narrative came to dominate the public debate and thereby successfully to marginalise other competing perspectives. The findings of this study reveal that Irish foreign policy has indeed been a reflection of Irish identity, just as contrasting visions of that very identity have contributed to the shape of Irish foreign policy.

This chapter outlines the central political and bureaucratic framework from which Irish foreign policy is constructed to analyses the significance of its evolution. It examines how the foreign policy process has evolved within an executive context, discusses the rise of the Department of Foreign Affairs as a key actor, and outlines the constitutional framework for foreign policy. This chapter highlights the limited role of the cabinet in foreign policy-making and considers the perspectives of executive actors in Ireland's foreign policy drama in the context of the proposed four identity narratives.

This chapter explains Buzan's model of threat intensity to evaluate Irish security policy against threats that the frontline agencies have identified. It also evaluates a key aspect of the Crime and Security Branch (CSB)'s on-island intelligence-gathering process in the context of shifting population patterns and the reform of the Garda. Anti-war groups, politicians and commentators have claimed that Ireland is a terrorist target. The Irish agencies have concentrated on more diffuse threats. The Irish government responded with wide-ranging legislative and institutional changes. Immigration control is a central pillar of Irish national security policy. The Irish government has recognised the need for integration in the face of early weaknesses in policy. Irish policy relies heavily on intelligence supplied by the agencies of other states that do not obviously have Ireland's security as their key concern.

This chapter outlines the development and potency of the third grand narrative in Irish foreign policy—that of Ireland as a European Republic. It explains that this narrative is based on a particular conception of sovereignty and it argues that the Irish are part of a distinct regional family and underlines the limited nature of the Irish state's capacity to shape its external environment. This narrative was constructed from Ireland's historic engagement with the European mainland, from an understanding of Europe as representing modernity, and from an aspiration of normalcy. The strength of this narrative reflects the abiding preoccupation of Irish policy makers over the last thirty to forty years to place Ireland at the heart of the European project and to refract so much else of Irish foreign policy through that lens of Europeanness.

This chapter discusses the political pressure on the Garda Síochána. It also describes the financial pressure on the Defence Forces, and the Anglo-Irish considerations in Irish national security policy. The most influential literature on the Garda finds that government ministers can, and do, interfere with the operational duties of the force, especially at moments of perceived political crisis. Walsh focuses on the Garda Síochána Act 1924 and Police Forces Amalgamation Act 1925 which provided the force's statutory underpinning. Ireland's overseas profile flattered a ‘bare-minimum’ policy of defence investment. Immigration control is an important area because since 9/11 Irish policy managers have emphasised the risk of terrorist cells emerging from within the State's new migrant community. Over time, Anglo-Irish cooperation on intelligence, policing, immigration and law has steadily improved. The desire to preserve the Common Travel Area helped place immigration at the core of Irish security policy.

This chapter examines how the legislative frameworks within which the agencies work affect policy. It reports the influences on policy of organisational problems within the Garda Síochána and of the traditionally difficult relations between the Defence Forces and their civilian overseers. The Garda was vulnerable to government pressure when conducting the re-evaluation of Irish national security policy after 9/11. The entire Defence Organisation became tied into a policy focus on the new generation of overseas mission. The top command structure of the Defence Forces is problematic for national security policy. It is noted that Air Corps management estimates that regaining jet aviation pilot and maintenance capabilities to prevent and intercept threats could take many years. The model of historical institutionalism has helped to identify and explain the significance of key moments in the development of Irish policy. The system of centralised political control poses difficulties for national security policy.

Dublin's approach from the mid-1970s seemed to confirm the thinking of an Irish policy document. The third option open to the British government is to declare that its objective in Ireland is the bringing together of both Irish traditions in reconciliation and agreement. John Hume played a significant role in the conception and propagation of the Anglo-Irish strategy and also guided the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) towards its realisation. ‘The Irish Question: a British problem’ set the co-ordinates of the SDLP's course under Hume, whose article made clear his belief that all parties to the Northern Ireland conflict had much to do to bring about its resolution. He also believed that the primary aim of the two governments (London and Dublin) should be to remove what he and his party saw as the main obstacle to agreement: the British guarantee and the resultant unionist veto.

This chapter describes the formulation of the English government of Irish policies. The diplomacy of pacification brought incidental benefits to Catholics in Ireland, but the inspiration was transient convenience, the source was royal indulgence, and the substance was elusive. As the effects of the abrupt reversal of English foreign policy worked themselves out, the initiative passed gradually from the crown to its subjects in Ireland. In preventing the English government from formulating its Irish policies without reference to the interests and opinions of Protestants in Ireland, they achieved an emergent independence of identity that was increasingly to complicate Anglo-Irish relations. As the restraints that the diplomacy of war had forced upon the government in Ireland were gradually lifted, an early opportunity was taken to meet widespread criticism in both Ireland and England by discontinuing the tacit policy of religious toleration.

This chapter outlines the development of the third narrative of Irish foreign policy—that of Ireland as an Anglo-American State. It explains that this narrative looks to the English-speaking world as being Ireland's natural political and cultural hinterland and it encapsulates a more radical challenge to nationalism than that offered by the narrative of the European Republic. This narrative was constructed from an understanding of Irish history as part of the warp and weft of a larger civilisational narrative and from an understanding of the Anglo-American world as representing modernity. This chapter also discusses challenges and criticisms on this narrative.

This chapter explains why an analysis of Irish national security policy after 9/11 is both timely and worthwhile. It also presents a brief summary of terminology that will crop up throughout the study. The research design employed is intended to facilitate the examination of policy from the perspectives of historical behaviour and crisis decision-making. It then turns to a model of threat response evaluation which is used to support a strategic and operational critique of Irish policy after 9/11. It describes how a governmental politics model can assist with the investigation of ‘crisis’ decision-making after 9/11. The five criteria for evaluating threat/considering response are the specificity of its identity, its nearness in space and time, the probability of it occurring, the weight of its consequences and whether or not perceptions of the threat are amplified by historical circumstance. Finally, an overview of the chapters included in this book is shown.

This chapter examines the role of British state policy in extracting republican moderation. It argues against studies that assume British policy had a clear goal of co-opting republicans and sucking them into mainstream politics. Instead a better understanding is to appreciate how British policy enabled republican moderation through two key conditions. Firstly it created a credible institutional framework for political competition in Northern Ireland that reduced the risks of participation for all sides. Secondly it was tolerant of the emergence of republicanism as a political force and did not suppress it, even while imposing robust anti-terrorist legislation against the IRA. These factors allowed republicans to commit to a moderate path knowing that the institutional framework offered a genuine opportunity to exercise power without inherently favouring one side over the other. Yet it would be a mistake to think British policy was always the product of a clear plan. It was often messy and contradictory. However, with the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985, successive British and Irish governments began to cohere around a shared position which ultimately enabled republican moderation.