Description
Russian action has caused Europe to revaluate issues surrounding Intelligence and defence not seen since the Cold War. Across Europe there have been moves towards greater intelligence sharing as a result of transnational terrorism, but the
focus has now shifted to issues surrounding the collection and collation of high quality intelligence
in relation to Russia. For this collection and sharing of information all European member states
need to engage with each other more closely and for this to work trust needs to be built and
maintained.
This paper seeks to evaluate Irelands place in Europe from intelligence and defense perspective.
Although an Island on the Western edge of Europe it is, in Intelligence terms the gateway to
Europe. Unfortunately, though, Ireland’s intelligence capabilities have decreased since the Good
Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, staring from a relatively limited base. Since then there have
been no efforts made by successive Irish governments to improve or grow Irelands intelligence
capabilities and to contribute to European intelligence and by extension the Defence of Europe.
While Ireland is a neutral state, that neutrality has always been flexible, it now represents a veil of
security that is unrealistic. A number of areas need to be considered in relation to Ireland and
European intelligence, (i) Irelands capabilities internally and its ability to secure the State, and (ii)
Irelands ability to contribute to European intelligence. This paper investigates the question of the
role of trust and mistrust in intelligence collaboration in relation to Ireland in the broader European
context: how can trust in Ireland’s role in intelligence be built, how it is lost, and how it may be
repaired/regained. We then further investigate how it may affect intelligence cooperation between
Ireland and within the European Union, but also between Ireland and the United Kingdom.
