Partnership for peace: The sine qua non for Irish participation in regional peacekeeping

Abstract

The Irish government entered Partnership for Peace (PfP) in December 1999, five years after the Partnership was founded. This article seeks to demonstrate the reasons for that decision, and in particular to illustrate the importance for Ireland of participation in PfP, as a forum for preparing countries to participate in regional peacekeeping under NATO or the EU/WEU. Evidence to support the importance of PfP is drawn from the changing nature of peacekeeping and NATO involvement in this field, the involvement of the continental neutrals in PfP, the importance of interoperability through the Planning and Review Process (PARP) of PfP and the link between PARP and planning for EU crisis management missions. It is also argued that the preponderance of evidence about the value of PfP helped to overcome the domestic inertia in the Irish debate on PfP and neutrality. Membership has helped both to marginalize the issue of neutrality internationally and to highlight domestic constraints of personnel and equipment in view of Ireland's wish to play a role in European security structures.