Umstrittene Schweizer Sicherheitspolitik ... - ETH Zürich

Ausland
Pitteloud Jacques: Maybe Ireland has not yet been touched by the results
of conflicts abroad because it is set at the westernmost tip of Europe. Thus,
the Dublin drug trade has not yet been taken over by the West African
mafia, unlike the one in Switzerland, as a result of which we directly feel
the consequences of conflicts that are quite far away.
You said that there is a feeling of solidarity in Ireland – as long as the
financial and human costs are not too high – a willingness to go abroad,
do the right thing, contribute to efforts aimed at stabilizing the world.
However, I wonder how you sell to the general public the idea of spending
public money on maintaining an army at all, on an instrument basically
used to act in some sort of solidarity rather than to maintain national
security. After all, in Ireland the risk of a military threat is probably even
smaller than in Switzerland.
Montgomery Rory: I don’t think any serious voice has ever been raised
to question the existence of our Defence Forces, not even in the 1980s,
which were very difficult times in economic terms. In the public, there
has been a considerable pride in the creation of the Armed Forces, and
there is a considerable pride in their service abroad. This pride may partly
have been a function of our history: it came from the idea of a force which
was representative of an independent Ireland and did not carry out the
sort of big power action our former masters did. This was important.
Funnily enough, even little things have had a major impact: there
is for instance quite a strong equine tradition in the Army, there is an
army showjumping team which is extremely popular, and there are army
bands which are much respected and admired. These things matter to
the public. An outstanding member of one of our most successful rugby
team was a serving army officer. This may sound trivial, but these things
do help to make an impact, for they convey an image of an army which
is very much at the service of the civil power and made up of people who
come from the mainstream of our society. However, overall we do not
have a very visible military class in Ireland. With regard to the question
of involvement overseas, you also have to bear in mind that in Ireland,
there is a very strong missionary tradition, both catholic and protestant:
a very large number of people have gone to Africa, to Asia, and to Latin
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