On the southwest coast of County Cork, where the lush green landscape gives way to the paler green of the Atlantic Ocean, Ireland is about to make its mark in the tech world again. A subsea cable is due to make landfall here, a high-capacity fiber-optic link designed to handle artificial intelligence loads for Amazon Web Services customers across Europe.<\/p>\n
But as well as showing off Ireland\u2019s economic strength, the Fastnet transatlantic cable is just the latest example to show up the country\u2019s defensive weaknesses. In an uncertain world, it\u2019s the kind of project that raises an uncomfortable question for the government 250 kilometers away in Dublin: how to protect it.<\/p>\n
Countries across Europe are beefing up their militaries and trying to reinforce their seas and airspace in response to Russian aggression in Ukraine and a retrenchment by the U.S. As a neutral state, Ireland is not a NATO member and has traditionally spent a paltry amount on its military capabilities.<\/p>\n
While it’s allocated a record \u20ac1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) to defense in its current budget, the Atlantic country has no dedicated defense minister, a naval fleet of just eight patrol vessels and a shortage of crew to operate them, while lacking the capacity to monitor even a fraction of its waters.<\/p>\n
The government published its first national maritime security strategy this year. Yet by dragging its heels on concrete measures to address the challenges presented, politicians are facing increasingly vocal calls to do more to shield the abundance of subsea infrastructure that is both critical to Ireland\u2019s international partners and its prosperity.<\/p>\n
One European diplomat said that cooperation with Dublin was good and improving, albeit from a position of Ireland having more limited defense and security capabilities following recognized underinvestment in the last 15 to 20 years. Another was less understanding, saying that their country had basically given up on trying to help Ireland with its defense situation, politically and militarily.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first duty of any neutral sovereign state is to be able to defend itself, and currently we can\u2019t,\u201d said Barry Andrews, a European lawmaker for Ireland\u2019s co-ruling Fianna Fail party. He called for a \u201cmuch more realistic\u201d stance from Dublin on the need to change its defense posture in light of Vladimir Putin\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n
Ireland is actively seeking to attract subsea cable business, and Fastnet is just one of several planned. Work is expected to start on the landing station for the link from Maryland this year. From the Irish coast, it will travel on to improve global connectivity and serve AWS cloud and AI customers across Europe from 2028.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, the Pisces telecommunications link between Galway and Portugal was announced in March, while the $1.6 billion EU-backed Celtic Interconnector electricity link from Cork to Brittany in France is now under construction. In all, almost three-quarters of the northern hemisphere\u2019s undersea telecommunications pass through or close to Irish waters.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s leading to some hard questions at home and abroad over Ireland\u2019s dependence for security on its EU membership and on the UK, its NATO neighbor.<\/p>\n
Those questions are harder to parry as Dublin takes on the EU\u2019s six-month rotating presidency on July 1 while having the bloc\u2019s lowest defense spend – about 0.2% of gross domestic product compared with some 5% in the Baltic states – while enjoying one of its highest rates of economic growth. It’s a reality brought home by a visit to Dublin by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to mark Ireland assuming the EU\u2019s helm.<\/p>\n
The situation was put in sharper focus by recent events surrounding the Yantar Russian spy vessel. Britain\u2019s then Defense Secretary John Healey said in November it was mapping UK subsea cables and was earlier seen in the Irish Sea. AWS declined to comment when asked what discussions it\u2019s had with the Irish government on Fastnet and security.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo country in Europe is off Russia\u2019s target list,\u201d the EU\u2019s Chief Foreign Envoy Kaja Kallas said during a visit to Dublin on June 9, citing hybrid attacks and sabotage against subsea cables. \u201cGreater investment in maritime capabilities is essential to keep our countries safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third European diplomat said their sense was that Ireland had stepped up its defensive preparations for the duration of its EU presidency, when it will host ministerial meetings.<\/p>\n
But the person said that the anticipation was Dublin wouldn\u2019t bother as much with highlighting how it is trying to improve security once its time in the chair is over because they expect the conversation to die down when the international spotlight moves on.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a charge rejected by Helen McEntee, who serves concurrently as Ireland\u2019s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Defence, and is responsible for the new maritime security strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole focus of that is to be clear about what\u2019s happening in our waters, so in particular monitoring our critical infrastructure underwater, but also looking at our overall maritime domain and how we can protect it,\u201d she said in an interview in Brussels on May 22. \u201cThat means building new partnerships, it means investing in new technologies, (and) it means strengthening our own defense forces.\u201d<\/p>\n
During a visit to Cork in March, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ireland\u2019s leader, Taoiseach Micheal Martin, announced an updated memorandum of understanding on defense, including greater coordination on addressing \u201cmajor subsea communication cable incidents.\u201d Live exercises are due to begin in September.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really important that Ireland, as we chair the presidency, is seen as a country that is taken seriously in this regard,\u201d McEntee added.<\/p>\n
That may be optimistic when the reality is of Russian shadow fleet vessels present off the west coast and Russian submarines sighted even in the Irish Sea. In one humbling incident, Irish fishermen ended up negotiating directly with the Russian ambassador to try to stop the Russian Navy from conducting live fire exercises in Ireland\u2019s waters.<\/p>\n
Geography has long played more in Ireland\u2019s favor, though. In 1858, the world\u2019s first transatlantic cable was laid between Newfoundland and Valentia Island in County Kerry, close to Ireland\u2019s westernmost point. It carried messages by telegraph that would previously have taken two weeks by sea to arrive.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t long before cables were being tampered with, though. At the onset of World War I in 1914, British forces cut German cables, forcing traffic onto British-controlled networks, according to the International Cable Protection Committee, which comprises commercial operators, ship owners and governments. Then, in 1917-18, German submarines cut multiple cables, including those linking Britain, the U.S. and Portugal.<\/p>\n
Cables today are more resilient, with tech companies better prepared for repair and maintenance, as well as route diversity. Governments, too, are now focused on readiness to respond to incidents, with a widespread recognition of the changed geopolitical situation. The complaint heard from Ireland\u2019s European partners is that it\u2019s moving too slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Irish security mindset hasn\u2019t really caught up with our economic and social prosperity,\u201d said Eoin McNamara, a postdoctoral fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs who has been invited to give lectures to the Irish defense forces on hybrid threats.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s despite Ireland hosting the European headquarters of most major U.S. tech giants and their data centers, making digital connections core to its economic prospects.<\/p>\n
Describing Ireland as a data bridge for the EU as a whole, McNamara cautioned against \u201calarm\u201d over subsea cables, saying that while damage happens, traffic can be rerouted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lesser risk is the severe disruption that could put the economic activity connecting to the multinationals at risk,\u201d he said. \u201cThe other risk is to Ireland\u2019s economic reputation, and this is something the government doesn\u2019t want to see unraveled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Travel south from Valentia along the jagged coastline past standing stones, castles, ancient wells and early shrines, and you\u2019ll eventually arrive at Owenahincha. That\u2019s where the AWS cable is due to come ashore and travel on to a landing station some 6 kilometers away.<\/p>\n
The location gets to the roots of Ireland\u2019s current defense dilemma.<\/p>\n
The beach lies within a stone\u2019s throw of the birthplace of Michael Collins, an Irish revolutionary leader who was instrumental in the early 20th-century struggle for independence from the British. The \u201cMichael Collins Trail\u201d leads to a statue and museum of his life in nearby Clonakilty, otherwise best known for its black pudding.<\/p>\n
The Irish Free State declared itself neutral when it was established in 1922 and maintained its neutrality through World War II. The Republic never joined NATO during the Cold War and has since kept military activities to peacekeeping.<\/p>\n
It has a so-called triple lock on deploying more than 12 military personnel overseas, requiring a UN Security Council mandate on top of government and parliamentary approval.<\/p>\n
The Irish Defense Forces are as small as they\u2019ve ever been. The country has no primary radar system to identify threats, and its ships have no advanced sonar, allowing them to see what\u2019s going on beneath them.<\/p>\n
One diplomat talked of a core of politicians, officers and officials who recognize the seriousness of the situation. While no one expects Ireland to abandon its neutral status, any discussion of defense is deeply sensitive, they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland\u2019s proud tradition of military neutrality is not in question,\u201d Kallas said. \u201cBut neutrality does not provide immunity from the threats Europe faces today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those threats aren\u2019t lost on Ireland, said Camino Kavanagh, a subsea infrastructure expert and senior visiting fellow with the department of war studies at King\u2019s College London. She said those posed by Russia and others have thrown the industry and politicians closer together on emergency planning.<\/p>\n
Ireland has identified a need for \u201cmulti-role vessels\u201d for its future fleet, with the UK keen to sell Dublin two or more of BAE Systems\u2019 Clyde-built Type-26 frigates. The French government has been asked to procure a \u20ac500 million military radar system for Ireland to fill that capability gap. Dublin is expected to rely on French and British military assets, including naval ships, for security during its EU presidency, the Irish Times reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cNaval expenditure is increasing,\u201d said Kavanagh. \u201cIt will never be at the level that anybody wants, but it is increasing. Actual purchasing of equipment capabilities is underway,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are in a moment of transition.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Ireland will have to outsource defense during its EU presidency to other member states, as others, including Denmark, have previously done. After that, said Andrews, the EU lawmaker, it must update its report on the future of the defense forces to take account of new realities.<\/p>\n
\u201cInterconnectors, gas pipelines, cyberattacks, misinformation – these are the nature of the threats that are out there,\u201d he said. \u201cGeographic isolation no longer presents us with the defense we used to have.\u201d<\/p>\n
With assistance from Suzanne Lynch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the southwest coast of County Cork, where the lush green landscape gives way to the paler green…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,24772,49637,2784,49639,206,13147,37787,49641,6424,49638,49640,3480],"class_list":["post-94917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-atlantic-ocean","tag-dublin","tag-european-union","tag-fastnet-lighthouse","tag-intelligence","tag-international-relations","tag-ireland","tag-maritime-security","tag-navy","tag-republic-of-ireland","tag-submarine-communications-cable","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}