Ireland's month-long chairmanship of the United Nations Security Council, which has just concluded, was defined above all by the international crisis following the lethal attacks on New York and Washington. The Security Council is the ultimate source of legitimacy in world politics, and it has responsibility to assess the necessity and proportionality of the United States's response to those attacks.
Under Ireland's chairmanship the Council paid close and sympathetic attention to the developing US position and the international coalition assembled to conduct the campaign against terrorism. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, have repeatedly stated their solidarity with the US and their satisfaction that the military action against the Taliban in Afghanistan is justified. This guided their policy during the month. Ireland ensured there were weekly meetings on the crisis and helped to direct the work of the special UN envoy to Afghanistan, Mr Lakhdan Brahmini, who has been trying to assemble a coherent set of arrangements for a post-Taliban administration and overseeing humanitarian relief.
The Government has resisted calls for a pause in the bombing to allow relief to be put in place before winter sets in. Its chairmanship has been more concerned with making sure the UN is in a position to respond constructively to the crisis than with taking bold initiatives. That is part of a longer game to make sure the US becomes more fully engaged with the UN than many of the more conservative members of the Bush administration think desirable. So far it has paid off, as the international consequences of the crisis unfold. More definite judgment on the strategy adopted by the US and its allies must await the outcome of their military and political campaign against the Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden. That hangs uncertainly in the balance as several major assumptions on which it was predicated remain in question.
Ireland was able to maintain its commitment to several priority areas during its chairmanship despite these pressing preoccupations. The Security Council has taken an active interest in a number of African issues, including the deadly civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Somalia, too, figured on its agenda, as did Burundi, where a Hutu-Tutsi coalition administration has just been installed. Ireland received widespread support from African nations in its campaign for the Security Council seat in recognition of the special attention paid to that continent in foreign policy and development programmes. The Government is nearly half way through its two year term on the Security Council. Launching it in January the Taoiseach said there would be a commitment to nuclear disarmament, international peacekeeping, development aid and human rights. Translating these into political realities can be slow work at the UN. The most valuable role Ireland can play is to help strengthen the UN's role in a world that badly needs it.