Ireland should seize all opportunities to become part of the peace and security process around the world, the head of the history department at UCC, Prof Dermot Keogh, has told the Merriman Summer School at Ennistymon, Co Clare. In a lecture yesterday on "Ireland, a Place Among the Nations, Dependence to Interdependence", Prof Keogh said Ireland should take cognisance of the new institutions emerging globally and begin to play a more significant role in them.
While there was little likelihood of Ireland joining NATO or the Western European Union, there appeared to be some political interest in joining the Partnership for Peace. However, there was a fear in some quarters that such a move would merely be a back door into NATO.
Such fears notwithstanding, Prof Keogh said the White Paper on Foreign Policy had made it clear that a threatened conflict did not exist. The document had also argued that by joining the Partnership for Peace, Ireland's defence and Garda forces could benefit from a new range of experiences. He believed such a participation would stand to the forces involved. There would be expanding roles in world-wide security operations and in humanitarian missions, he continued.
It was quite inexplicable, he said, that so far, this State had failed to join the organisation.