Two hundred years to the day since the Act of Union came into force this State took its seat on the Security Council of the United Nations. It has been a long journey from the closure of the partially independent parliament on College Green to what hopefully will be a fully independent approach to international affairs. With the end of the Cold War, a period in which the balance of power between the United States and the Soviet Union effectively kept the world in order, the ten elected and five permanent members of the Council have faced increasingly strong pressures.
The Taoiseach Mr Ahern promised yesterday that Ireland would take a reforming approach to its role as a member of what he described as one of the most influential bodies on earth. There would, he said, be a commitment to nuclear disarmament, international peacekeeping, development aid and human rights. These issues would be at the heart of Ireland's work in the Council. Addressing the Foreign Policy Association in New York in September, Mr Ahern described the illegal arms trade as "an affront to a world where 1.3 billion people still live on less than $1 a day, where 12 million people die before their fifth birthday, where 34.5 million are infected by the HIV virus, and 13 million AIDS orphans are left to fend for themselves".
Irish policy in the Council will, according to Mr Ahern's statements, be motivated by a humanitarianism infrequently evident in the actions of the five permanent members. It is similar, however, in its philosophy to the views espoused by Norway which was elected to a Western European seat on the council at the same time as this State. Both countries received strong backing from African countries in their campaigns for membership and both can be expected therefore to pursue an agenda which is favourable to the third world and its immense problems. It should be remembered however that the influence of countries such as Ireland and Norway is extremely limited and that the Security Council itself lost a great deal of its prestige and importance. NATO, for example, conducted its military campaign against Yugoslavia without referring the matter to the United Nations until the fighting was over. It is likely too that there will be opposition to Mr Ahern's stated objectives from within the Council itself. The Taoiseach's emphasis on disarmament and human rights does not square with the points made in article in this newspaper last month by the Republican Congressman, Mr Ben Gilman from New York, whose views are close to those of the incoming US administration.
"If the issues that are permitted to dominate our relationship," Mr Gilman wrote, "are those such as nuclear weapons, capital punishment, the US embargo on Cuba, and the European Union's anxiety about US trade and investment goals on the European continent, then we will find bumps on the road." Security Council membership will expose Ireland's foreign policy to far greater scrutiny at home and abroad. It is to be hoped that the admirable ideals expressed by Mr Ahern will be pursued, however strong the pressures might be to abandon them.