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Irish neutrality and the Development of the European Union’s Security and Defence Policy under the Lisbon Treaty: Compatible or Competing Foreign Policy Agendas?
Unformatted Document Text:  Irish neutrality and the Development of the  European Union’s Security and Defence  Policy under the Lisbon Treaty: Compatible or  Competing Foreign Policy Agendas? Karen Devine IRCHSS Postdoctoral Research Fellow Centre for International Studies School of Law and Government Dublin City University Email:  karen.## email not listed ## Paper prepared for delivery to the Annual Conference of the International Studies Association  (ISA) New York City, 15-18 February 2009. Draft Paper:  Please do not cite without prior permission from the author – comments are most welcome Abstract The paper examines elite and public discourses on neutrality and the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)/European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) in Ireland to establish the content of the concepts of neutrality operating at the level of the elite and at the level of the public. The paper finds divergences in public and elite concepts of neutrality that give rise to competing foreign policy agendas.   In parallel with security and defence policy developments in successive EU Treaties, many argue that the meaning of neutrality has been reconceptualised by elites in Ireland (and by elites in other EU ‘neutral’ member states) to the point of irrelevance and inevitable demise. This paper will critically assess whether public and government neutrality concepts are incompatible with or complementary to the ESDP envisaged under   the   Nice   and   Lisbon   Treaties.   Whilst   elites   argue   that   [their   ‘military’   concept   of] neutrality is plausible under the Lisbon Treaty, the paper concludes that the public, ‘active’ concept of neutrality is incompatible with the ESDP envisaged under the Lisbon Treaty and that the government discourse claiming ‘military neutrality’ is safeguarded is implausible. The paper draws further conclusions on the future role of neutrality both inside and outside of the EU’s ESDP. Introduction The research question of this paper concerns fundamental contradictions between Irish neutrality and the development of the European Union’s “European Security and Defence Policy”, up to and including the new “Common Security and Defence Policy” provisions laid out in the Lisbon Treaty.   The paper uses a discourse approach to incorporate the political context of EU security  1

Authors: Devine, Karen.
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Irish neutrality and the Development of the 
European Union’s Security and Defence 
Policy under the Lisbon Treaty: Compatible or 
Competing Foreign Policy Agendas?
Karen Devine
IRCHSS Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Centre for International Studies
School of Law and Government
Dublin City University
Email: 
Paper prepared for delivery to the Annual Conference of the International Studies Association 
(ISA) New York City, 15-18 February 2009.
Draft Paper: 
Please do not cite without prior permission from the author – comments are most welcome
Abstract
The paper examines elite and public discourses on neutrality and the European Union’s Common 
Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)/European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) in Ireland to 
establish the content of the concepts of neutrality operating at the level of the elite and at the 
level of the public. The paper finds divergences in public and elite concepts of neutrality that 
give rise to competing foreign policy agendas.   In parallel with security and defence policy 
developments in successive EU Treaties, many argue that the meaning of neutrality has been 
reconceptualised by elites in Ireland (and by elites in other EU ‘neutral’ member states) to the 
point of irrelevance and inevitable demise. This paper will critically assess whether public and 
government neutrality concepts are incompatible with or complementary to the ESDP envisaged 
under   the   Nice   and   Lisbon   Treaties.   Whilst   elites   argue   that   [their   ‘military’   concept   of] 
neutrality is plausible under the Lisbon Treaty, the paper concludes that the public, ‘active’ 
concept of neutrality is incompatible with the ESDP envisaged under the Lisbon Treaty and that 
the government discourse claiming ‘military neutrality’ is safeguarded is implausible. The paper 
draws further conclusions on the future role of neutrality both inside and outside of the EU’s 
ESDP.
Introduction
The research question of this paper concerns fundamental contradictions between Irish neutrality 
and the development of the European Union’s “European Security and Defence Policy”, up to 
and including the new “Common Security and Defence Policy” provisions laid out in the Lisbon 
Treaty.   The paper uses a discourse approach to incorporate the political context of EU security 
1


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