Ireland must decide how it will help protect Europe

We must ask ourselves how does a militarily neutral country protect itself in a rapidly deteriorating security environment?

Russian President Vladimir Putin: The threats we face in Europe are no longer theoretical. Russian drones have been detected over more than 10 EU countries. Picture: Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool via AP

Born from the ashes of the Second World War, the European Union was built on the conviction that economic interdependence would preserve peace and prevent another devastating conflict on the continent. 

Yet while this interdependence has ensured war has never again erupted between member states, it did not prevent war in Europe itself. The conflict in Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008, the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and now nearly four years on, Moscow’s military assault on Ukraine, has exposed the fragility of Europe’s post-war security order.