The Government faced a major foreign policy challenge this week as it took up positions on the Iraq war and tried not to offend major international partners and domestic constituencies.
Public scrutiny of its policy will intensify along with the war. Few can have witnessed last night's ferocious aerial bombardment of Iraqi cities without reflecting on the awfulness of modern warfare and the lessons it contains for the future shape of international security. These operations are clearly designed to "shock and awe" not only the Iraqi regime, but others in the Middle East region and beyond it which are regarded as a threat by the United States. The very shape of world order and legitimate authority is put at stake by such extensive bombardment launched without explicit mandate by the United Nations Security Council.
The Government had three political messages to communicate this week: on the US-led war against Iraq; on the future role of the UN; and on the use of Shannon and Irish airspace by US troop-carrying aircraft. The US and British military attack without Security Council approval was regretted, not condemned. The Taoiseach says another resolution was a political imperative; if it had been passed, Ireland would have been willing to participate. Without it, this State will not do so. Because there is no legal consensus on the US-British action, the Government does not believe it is illegal. In his article in this newspaper today Mr Ahern says whether military action is justified "will be determined only in the light of the results achieved and the costs incurred, including in terms of the loss of human lives". This is a very pragmatic approach to the morality of these attacks. It does not address their political acceptability. That question is not resolved by the repeated and justifiable condemnation of Iraq for not disarming.
Nor does the Government address the damage such unilateral action will do to the UN's structures and effectiveness. Mr Brian Cowen told the Dáil "the world needs an effective United Nations". He went on: "The alternative to the collective system of security embodied in the United Nations is a return to the international anarchy which plagued the first half of the 20th century." If so, it is essential that the UN's role in post-war reconstruction of Iraq be strenuously affirmed against influential voices in the US which wish to stand it down.
On Shannon, the Government has insisted that refusal of facilities would be a hostile act towards the US and Britain, with whom Ireland has so many ties and such close relations. This does not make Ireland a member of a military coalition or affect military neutrality, according to Mr Ahern. Opposition parties and many citizens strongly disagree. By placing such an emphasis on Shannon, the Government has obscured its continuing commitment to the UN and given the impression that it backs the US-British attack on Iraq. Regrettably, this has shifted the ground of Ireland's security policy in the perception of many domestic and international observers.