The purpose of this article is to suggest that, in certain respects, the actions of US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth show the influence – direct or indirect – of Italian Renaissance political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 – 1527). I had an ‘epiphany’ in this regard while attending a conference in Florence recently on the…
It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal A few weeks ago I wrote an article for The Irish Catholic urging the twenty-three (of twenty-seven) EU member states currently also members of the US-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to leave NATO, giving this the sobriquet NEXIT. My…
Some years ago, as a diplomat at the Irish Embassy in Lisbon, I went ‘on mission’ to Rio de Janeiro because back then the Embassy also handled relations with Brazil. Following my return to Lisbon from one such expedition, I headed straight to a reception at the house of a Finnish colleague and spoke enthusiastically…
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is often lauded as the world’s most successful ever military alliance, and I for one am not about to ‘diss’ the role it played in providing protection for Western Europe against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Supposedly, NATO is not just a military alliance, it is also…
A Colloquia took place at the Institute of Political Studies, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon, earlier this month entitled ‘Restless World, Restless Democracies’. It was the third event in an annual series, the purpose of which is – as its chief organiser Prof. Lívia Franco put it – to serve as a laboratory for ideas. This…
In this second article I shall continue with an examination of challenges facing Ireland in a security and defence context but first I need to say a little more about the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). NATO’s woes As I wrote in a piece for this newspaper in July 2024, NATO has had its share…
Some years ago, while on a diplomatic posting at the Irish Embassy in Lisbon, I attended a ceremony at which the then Ambassador of Ireland to Portugal, John Campbell, gave an address to graduating students at St Dominic’s International School. The key sentence of Ambassador Campbell’s speech that day has always remained with me. He…
The splendid Maggio Musicale building in Florence was the venue for the third annual European festival of journalism and media freedom. As the programme explained, the festival is a “three-day event where citizens can come together to explore crucial themes shaping our relationship with information.” The chief organiser is the Centre for Media Pluralism and…
During a recent RTÉ radio interview with Brendan O’Connor, Mairead McGuinness was quizzed inter alia about European Union (EU) issues. The former European Commissioner, former First Vice-President of the European Parliament, and erstwhile Fine Gael Presidential candidate, gave a spirited defence of the EU. Conceding that it needed to be much more agile, nonetheless she…
Donald J Trump is no political philosopher, nor would he have the slightest desire to be one. As Prof. Sheri Berman of Bard College New York quipped last year about Curtis Yarvin, Trump is no Carl Schmitt. Yet in relation to his obsessive desire to gain control of Greenland for the United States, however perversely,…