On February 25th and 26th 2020, the first National Security Summit met at Dublin City University in the Helix building. The summit focused on four main branches of security to allow for a variety of keynotes, panels, and debates. Topics like global security, cybersecurity, defence/intelligence security, and innovation/research are just some of the themes attendees were able to choose from. There were also a variety of speakers like Russell Travers, Brigadier General Rory O’Conner, Dermot Woods, Dr. Maura Conway, Special Agent Kevin Bosch, and Commandant Sharon McManus.
Many people may wonder why Ireland should even have a security summit, but it only takes looking at the news to understand. As the United States continues to threaten NATO with their withdrawal, many European countries have begun the process of rearmament. Germany is one such country that has budgeted billions of money to go directly into their military. In a country like Ireland, that has a history of staying formally neutral during countless wars, these recent actions have left the country feeling conflicted.
Many speakers, like Minister Paul Kehoe, stated that Ireland needs to become a more secure environment. He explains, “The threat level [from a terrorist attack] is moderate”, but highlights at the same time that although it is not likely, that does not diminish the fact that it can happen. In the midst of a terrorist attack, Ireland does not have the resources to deal with the threat or the aftermath. Inadequate funding and public indifference holds the military back from achieving what many believe is a safety net for the country.
Ireland has allocated funds for the defence budget in 2020 to be €1.04 billion, however, a little over half of that will be going to pay the 10,400 public service employees. In a world where a terrorist attack can happen anywhere, at any time, Ireland will have to choose how involved it really wants to be.
Another interesting theme that seemed to carry over the two days was the idea that people matter, meaning that the summit focused on The Republic of Ireland needing to become a nation that can ensure its citizen’s safety more effectively. Ken Pennington stated, “[When] getting back to the basics, human rights matters”. Paul Gill expanded on this during his talk. Gill kept reiterating that profiling is not what it used to be. It is not just men of a certain race or economic status who commit attacks. It is students trying to behead a soldier, retirees wanting to wreak havoc, and there are also more women now committing crimes.
The threat of biochemical warfare was also mentioned in many discussions. Conor Gallagher declared, “We can hide from bullets and bombs but we can’t hide from gas”. Biochemical warfare can be a real issue and in 2018, when a Novichok agent poisoned Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, England, many people were left confused and scared. When facing biochemical disasters it is also important to mention the bravery of people in the medical field who treat patients knowing they could die themselves.
In my opinion, this summit was amazing because of the amount of information it gave to its attendees. I was given new ways of looking at different situations or events, new interests I want to explore, and I met wonderful people through networking events as well. Having people with a variety of backgrounds, as well as both academic and experienced-based approaches gave the summit discussions more depth. People did not always agree with one another and respectfully expressed different ideas. With that said I hope this conference will be the first of many to come. For more information, you can always visit www.nssi.ie to learn more.
Photo by Meredith Salois
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