Is the world ready for Brian Cowen? He took on the Foreign Affairs brief in January but was plunged immediately into a Northern Ireland crisis that took up a lot of time. There were major events on the international scene but none that required a high-profile Irish involvement. Then the summer came along.

What it all adds up to is that the Offaly man is only now finding his feet on the international stage. Mr Cowen went global as of this week, when he gave his first address to the UN General Assembly. Time was when one of his Fianna Fail predecessors in the job, Frank Aiken, used to spend three months of the year at the UN. That was then, this is now. Foreign ministers (Aiken was quaintly called Minister for External Affairs) can no longer spend a quarter of the year at the UN.

So, does Ireland take the UN seriously any more? There is a view that we have been seduced away from its noble ideals by the lure of European gold. A European Union Rapid Reaction Force is being formed, with a significant Irish component. Will Irish soldiers in blue helmets soon become a collector's item?

No, no, a thousand times no, is Cowen's answer.

"We are absolutely committed, and there is no change in policy since we became members of the UN in the last 40 years, to our contribution and involvement in UN peacekeeping."

The Rapid Reaction Force was purely and simply a matter of fulfilling the EU's so-called Petersberg Tasks - including humanitarian and rescue missions, crisis management, peacekeeping and peacemaking. Irish participation in the new force would be on a case-by-case basis.

"There's no mutual defence commitment involved," he says.

It does not constitute an undermining of Irish neutrality, nor does he see a need for a referendum on participation, since the legal advice is that the new commitment is in line with the Treaty of Amsterdam. Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, has been invited to discussions on how the EU and UN "can work together in a mutually reinforcing way".

As evidence of our UN commitment, there is the intense Irish campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council, which has been going on for at least two years and reaches its climax with the vote in a few weeks' time. Another newspaper has queried the value of the campaign and suggested that the million pounds involved could be spent in other ways.

The Minister is contemptuous. He recalls Oscar Wilde's definition of a cynic as someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. "It's important from Ireland's point of view that we contribute where we can, when we can, as a modern democratic state."

Playing the role of devil's advocate, I repeat the view expressed by a certain German diplomat who said the problem with Security Council membership was that you had to say Yes or No over difficult issues on a daily basis.

Mr Cowen does not regard this as a problem: "That's the nature of taking on political responsibility. I don't characterise our country and its people as people who stand aside, who sit on the fence, who turn a blind eye to injustice or poverty or any of these issues on the basis that we don't want to offend anybody and we don't want to stand up and give amplification to the values that we claim on behalf of what makes us Irish."

Ireland has its own distinctive contribution to make: "The whole purpose of our fight for freedom presumably was to take our place among the nations of the world, and here's an opportunity for us to do that and to be a voice for smaller and weaker countries who haven't had the opportunity to develop and prosper that we have."

There is scepticism, too, in some quarters about the durability of the commitment given by the Taoiseach at the Millennium Summit last week to increase Ireland's development aid budget to meet the UN target in seven years. Mr Cowen says it is "a solemn political undertaking" which he believes will be honoured, regardless of changing political circumstances.

Even more than the North, Mr Cowen's record as Foreign Minister is likely to be judged by his performance alongside his colleagues at the December EU Summit in Nice. An Inter-Governmental Conference has been established to work out proposals on reforming the institutions in preparation for the admission of, effectively, the other half of Europe in the next few years, and this process will come to a head at Nice. There have been visionary statements on Europe's future from German and French leaders, but it is not always clear where the smaller member-states fit into their grand designs.

The Government's position is that each member-state must retain full membership of the European Commission. Those member-states with two commissioners might be prepared to consider giving up one place in return for reweighting of votes on the Council of Ministers. In that case, if 10 new member-states join, this will mean a Commission of 25 members. Mr Cowen remains to be convinced that a 25-member Commission cannot work as well as one with 20.

The North was a major component of his General Assembly address on Thursday. The speech was generally uncontroversial, except for some blunt utterances on policing and the implementation of the Patten Report. Blair and Mandelson have to get it right in their legislation, is his underlying theme. The desired result, he tells me, is "a situation where young nationalists will join the new police service".

He remains in the US next week, where his itinerary includes meeting Irish-American groups who claim different and contradictory signals are being sent by the fact that, on the one hand, the Government supports police reform in the North whereas, on the other, the Garda fraternise openly with the RUC and they have even sent a joint boxing team to the US. "I can't understand why it should be an issue," Mr Cowen says. "Perspectives from 3,000 miles away can be a lot different from the reality on the ground." Garda-RUC co-operation took place against a background of reform proposals that had to be implemented. He had no problem about a joint boxing team.

Iveagh House and its outposts are currently subject to an internal review and, by all accounts, the Minister is taking a keen interest in the restructuring discussions. Mr Cowen wants "to make sure we integrate our Foreign Service into the domestic agenda". An appraisal is taking place aimed at fitting the Department for a brave new world, including an expanded service abroad.

The interview is over but, before he goes, and in the light of recent speculation about a move to the Department of Finance, would Brian Cowen prefer to continue flying the flag or take over the purse-strings instead? He replies that he finds his present job enjoyable and is not getting itchy feet.