An Cosantóir

20 | NATO IRELAND’S PARTICIPATION BY WESLEY BOURKE As a member of the United Nations, the European Union, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe, and NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme, Ireland has clearly demonstrated its commitment to helping to build a peaceful and stable international environment where economies can flourish and individuals can prosper. Because Ireland is not a member of NATO, many Irish people’s knowledge of the Western military alliance gener- ally doesn’t go beyond what they read in the media. Many of these reports are distorted and one-dimensional, simply portraying NATO as an extension of American power that is now bogged down in Afghanistan. For members of the Defence Forces our understanding should be different as we have had personnel serving in NATO-led, UN-mandated missions in Kosovo (KFOR), Afghanistan (ISAF), and, previ- ously, in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SFOR). NATO was created in 1949 as a collective defence security organisation and was designed, under the Washington Treaty, to collectively balance the military power of all its members against the Soviet threat during the Cold War. Under its Article 5, if one member gets attacked all other members will come to that country’s defence. With the end of the Cold War, NATO had to redefine itself during the 1990s. The crisis in the Balkans propelled it to develop crisis management capabilities and NATO’s interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo led to UN-mandated peacekeeping missions (IFOR/SFOR and KFOR respectively). Ireland participated in all three of these missions. As a consequence of the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001, Article 5 was invoked for the first time in NATO’s history. This led not only to European NATO-member states providing surveillance aircraft to patrol the coast of the United States but also to the UN-mandated, NATO-led operation in Afghanistan. Today NATO’s 28 members are committed to promoting peace, security and democratic values. On behalf of the UN it is engaged in helping to rebuild Afghanistan, through ISAF (International Security Assistance Force); anti-piracy operations off the Horn of Africa (Operation Ocean Shield); and is currently enforcing a NATO-led no-fly zone over Libya (Operation Unified Protector) in accordance with UN Resolution 1973. Ireland is not a member of the NATO alliance and conse- quently is not committed to Article 5’s collective defence An Cosantóir August 2011 Lt Col John Egan with Col Con Ryan in Brussels clause. “This is very important for people to understand,” Lt Col John Egan, Defence Forces Assistant Military Repre- sentative at NATO HQ, says. “Participating in a NATO-led, UN-mandated mission does not bind us to Article 5 in any way. Article 5 applies only to the 28 alliance members.” The Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme is one of sev- eral programmes that are run by NATO but which include countries from outside the Alliance. These programmes are designed to promote political and military dialogue and in- teroperability. Ireland is one of the 22 members of the PfP, a programme that allows partner countries to build up an in- dividual relationship with NATO, choosing their own priori- ties for co-operation. The main purpose of PfP is to increase stability, diminish threats to peace and build strengthened security relationships between individual partner countries and NATO, as well as among partner countries themselves. Ireland is represented at NATO/PfP level by the Defence Forces Military Representative (currently Brig Gen Tom Behan), the Dept of Defence Representative Counsellor (currently Mr Leo Connolly), and the Dept of Foreign Affairs Ambassador to Belgium and NATO (currently HE Tom Han- ney). All three consult and pass on their recommendations to their respective departments back in Ireland, where the final decision will be made on whatever matter is at hand, such as our involvement in a NATO-led, UN peace-support operation, for example. Brig Gen Behan has two permanent staff in NATO HQ, Col Con Ryan (Dep Mil Rep) and Lt Col John Egan (Asst Mil Rep). Under PfP every aspect of NATO’s activity is covered, including defence reform; defence policy and planning; civil-military relations; education and training; military-to- military co-operation and exercises; civil emergency plan- ning and disaster-response; and co-operation on scientific and environmental issues. “As the Defence Forces’ military representatives we provide advice on PfP matters to the General Staff, and also advise the Dept of Foreign Affairs and civilian colleagues in the Dept of Defence on military matters,” Col Con Ryan told me. “We attend a large range of meetings that impact on the Defence Forces. Our involvement with PfP is primar- ily for interoperability and capability development. It’s a two-way programme; NATO and other PfP members have benefited from our experience and expertise and we have benefited from theirs.” “There were several reasons for joining PfP in 1999,”

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