This article revisits Virginia Woolf’s 1929 extended essay A room of one’s own to examine the persistent under-representation of women in international politics through feminist perspectives in international relations. Drawing on Woolf’s metaphor, the article establishes a parallel between her argument about women’s need for economic independence and personal space for intellectual production and the structural conditions required for women’s participation in political decision-making. With the integration of feminist international relations scholarship, the article critiques mainstream theories in the discipline and highlights how global governance continues to be shaped by gendered norms of power. It argues that, without structural transformations that enable women’s voices to have genuine influence, women’s representation in decision-making positions is insufficient. Ultimately, the article demonstrates the need to rethink the architecture of global power to create a fairer and more effective international political system.
ABSTRACT: This article looks at the demographic composition of middle-ground identities in Northern Ireland, challenging the narrative that the ‘Northern Irish’ designation represents a truly shared, cross-community shift away from historical divisions. Using Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey data from 2020 to 2024, the analysis reveals a significant generational difference among individuals from a Protestant background. Younger Protestants are increasingly adopting moderate identities, by claiming a ‘Northern Irish’ national identity over British, claiming ‘no religion’, disavowing unionism for a ‘neither’ political stance and favouring the constitutional status quo of devolved government. This generational gap is largely absent among those from a Catholic background. Younger Catholics generally maintain traditional nationalist and Irish identities, sharing the political attitudes of their elders, including a preference for reunification. This suggests that middle-ground identities are becoming disproportionately concentrated among younger Protestants, raising questions about their long-term viability as inclusive identities.
European strategic autonomy has been discussed prominently in the context of defence issues and the EU’s relationship with NATO and the US. Despite being a contemporary phenomenon in the EU’s foreign policy debate, it has only recently become of central importance in academic analysis. The broader concept of strategic autonomy has evolved from a foreign-policy principle in the EU’s 2016 Global Strategy, to the economic realm with the bloc’s new commitment to ‘open strategic autonomy’ in 2020. This article will examine the newly created imbalances in US-EU relations and how they are impacting the vision of strategic autonomy in Europe. Under the growing weight of the US in the relationship, Europeans feel increasingly incapable of acting, while the US feels increasingly less interested in what Europeans think about security issues. Under Joe Biden’s administration, there was a willingness and forbearance to keep the transatlantic partnership with Europe intact. This has now fundamentally changed, for example with President Donald Trump’s unilateral approaches to the Gaza and Iran conflicts and the resolution of the Ukraine conflict. John J. Mearsheimer’s offensive realism positions the international system as irredeemably anarchic, compelling states to pursue power maximisation to ensure survival. Offensive realism also offers insight into the structural constraints on the EU’s geopolitical ambitions as anarchy rewards power accumulation and penalises dependency. The article will also analyse the most divisive issues confronting the EU and the Franco-German alliance, which have roots in the worldview of the two countries. German post-war identity rests partly on a military alliance with the US and partly on a strong aversion to public debt; President Emmanuel Macron’s vision of a sovereign Europe is a logical extension of long-standing French trade protectionism and ambivalence towards a permanent role in Europe for the US. Resolving these different outlooks is now key to the EU’s future and to European strategic autonomy.
In 1930 James Scullin, Australia’s first Catholic prime minister, completed a week-long visit to Ireland. This article assesses the significance of the visit for the politics of the Irish Free State, Northern Ireland and Australia. The visit of the first overseas leader of Irish descent to the Irish Free State was hailed by contemporary media as one of the most significant events in the political life of the infant state. The Irish government already had reason to be grateful to Scullin who had been of assistance in a serious constitutional dispute with the British government. Scullin openly supported unification of the island of Ireland, which proved controversial when he visited Northern Ireland. These events were largely forgotten by the time of Scullin’s death in 1953. This article attempts to explain why Scullin’s Irish visit was largely forgotten and why it deserves to be restored to popular memory.
ABSTRACT: This paper provides an updated assessment of living standards, opportunities for life progression and well-being across the island of Ireland. Drawing on recent analysis, we examine household disposable income, private and public consumption, earnings, educational participation, early school leaving, patterns of government spending and taxation, and health indicators including infant mortality and life expectancy, revealing widening gaps in income, persistent disparities in educational outcomes and notable differences in health performance. Life expectancy is highlighted as a cumulative measure of welfare. Northern Ireland held a slight advantage until the mid-2000s but the Republic of Ireland has since overtaken it and widened the gap. Today, life expectancy at birth is approximately two years higher in the Republic, arguably reflecting structural differences in income, education and healthcare access. These results provide insights into the evolving economic and social landscape of both jurisdictions and carry important implications for policy design and North–South relations.
ABSTRACT: The constitutional future of the island of Ireland is a contentious subject. In this paper we report on the outcomes of a highly participatory form of deliberation on Irish constitutional futures that—in our experimental cafés—recruited women across both sides of the Irish border and on a cross-community basis. We show that grassroots deliberation changed the terms of debate. It harnessed the potential of everyday peacebuilding and channelled it in politically relevant ways, focusing on shared policy problems and reframing the constitutional agenda. We emphasise the social and democratic value of the process in a still divided society and island. The purpose of this article is a proof of concept, offering a rationale for adopting the approach more widely. Our research is designed to explore the value of grassroots deliberation in framing and changing the constitutional agenda.
ABSTRACT: This review examines Ireland's foreign relations in 2024. The year saw significant changes in Ireland's domestic political scene, with elections at the local, national and European levels. The ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine continued to present challenges for Ireland's foreign policy. The review begins with an overview of Ireland's changing domestic political environment before outlining relations with the EU, the UK, Northern Ireland, the USA and the rest of the world. It concludes by noting several prominent deaths of individuals who had a significant impact on Ireland's foreign relations in the past.
ABSTRACT: We are living through an era of profound global challenge, from climate emergency to nuclear tension to strained alliances and democratic backsliding. Russian aggression, China's military build-up, intractable conflicts in the Middle East, and 'America First' strategies give us much to be concerned about. In the midst of instability and conflict, humanity's persistent capacity to achieve and sustain international cooperation seems to defy the odds. The long peace since the Second World War has seen a reduction in poverty levels and a decline in violence, showing how human motivations tend towards empathy and cooperation. This article, stemming from the author's 2024 book and her plenary address to the 2025 annual conference of the International Affairs Standing Committee, considers humans as an 'ultrasocial' species. It shows why this matters for policy, arguing that if we recognise our nature as a species and the potential we have to work together, we can galvanise people around progressive, inspirational ideas. The author offers recommendations for policy and governance to harness this ultrasociality and create a cooperative breakthrough.
ABSTRACT: Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have witnessed divergent development trajectories since partition, highlighting a reversal of fortunes: from an initially stronger, industrialised North to a now more prosperous South. Key factors for this include industrial decline and prolonged conflict during the Troubles in the North, contrasted with the South’s modernisation, EU integration and the rapid growth of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ era. Focusing on infrastructure, energy and economic development, this paper explores the weakness of regional balance on the island of Ireland from a cross-border perspective. Drawing on relevant literature review and interviews with nine regional stakeholders, we assess the challenges of fostering cross-border connectivity in a post-Brexit context. Emphasis is placed on enabling agencies, collaborative governance, and sustainable regional growth, especially in poorly connected areas. Recommendations are given for bottom-up, expert-led initiatives to achieve a more balanced regional development paradigm on the island of Ireland as a whole.
ABSTRACT: This article compares the performance of the tourism industry in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The analysis shows a strong recent performance in Northern Ireland, but there are a range of performance gaps compared to the Republic. Deepening existing cooperation may have the potential to unlock long-term growth across the island, by leveraging the more developed sector in the Republic, and perhaps benefiting from emerging capacity constraints there. The weaker performance to date in Northern Ireland is in part a reflection of a lower starting point given the legacy of the Troubles, but the North–South gaps continue to widen. A stronger convergence is possible, with significant growth potential for Northern Ireland, through a single tourism offering, and such a single offering could change visitors’ perceptions. However, several policy areas are not devolved and would require changes by the UK government, making the process more complex.
ABSTRACT: This article updates earlier work on the scale of the UK ‘subvention’ to Northern Ireland. It deconstructs the largest elements of the subvention, analysing the likely impact of each in the context of unity. It calculates that the most likely outcome is an inherited deficit of £1.5bn per annum, with additional costs in equalising public sector wages, state pensions and benefits, which are much higher in the Republic. The article assumes that public expenditure would increase by at least €1bn p.a. to boost economic performance and to deal with crises in public services including health. Three growth scenarios are explored, reflecting experience in central Europe after states joined the EU. The analysis suggests that Northern Ireland’s public finances would reach break-even between five and fourteen years after unity—making the cost affordable for the existing Republic through use of the state’s sovereign fund, or by borrowing for the transition period.
ABSTRACT: The resurgence of more predominant power politics has led to calls for enhanced autonomy in the security and defence field, as well as a stronger military stance in the international arena. Conversely, the shift in power dynamics has also stressed the importance of consolidating international cooperation and protecting universal values, namely, democracy, the rule of law and human rights. Thus, employing a values-based foreign policy approach to establish cooperation with 'like-minded' partners still appears to be fundamental. The EU-Japan relations are an example of this. In effect, the European Union has widened its cooperative network beyond its traditional regional reach, focusing more on the Indo-Pacific region, and deepening cooperation with 'natural allies' in that region, such as Japan. Yet, while this EU-Japan partnership is supposedly values-based, its focus has shifted to strengthening security and defence ties, gradually overshadowing its normative commitments to upholding universal values. This raises the question of how values and interests coexist and shape international cooperation within a more security-focused global order.
ABSTRACT: At the close of the first quarter of the twenty-first century global society can be seen entering a new period of uncertainty. The increased unpredictability of certain global leaders and continued conflict cycles set against climate chaos and ever-increasing levels of social disparities have led to a growing realisation of the vulnerabilities of communities worldwide. Additionally, the rise in divisive far right ideologies and policies that seek to propagate exclusionist nation building narratives can draw comparisons with societal conditions in the immediate pre-World War II years and the associated rupturing of that global order. There is an imperative to develop alternative, bottom-up initiatives that run in parallel with positivist state actions to counter the narratives and actions of sponsored chaos. Building on Roger Mac Ginty's approach to everyday peace, this article considers the possibilities of utilising cultural heritage practice to enable ordinary people to confront division and exclusion and promote cohesion, positive identity formation and place-making. Ireland, as a nation, has an opportunity to develop an international platform of heritage-informed peacebuilding through initiatives like cultural heritage professional capacity development programmes tied to a cultural heritage promotion fund within international development structures. We stress that this article is rooted in applied practice and deliberately eschews an overly theoretical approach. By extension it advocates for an informed, internationalist and proactive approach from Ireland's varied cultural heritage communities to deliver mechanisms that support change.
ABSTRACT: This article explores the evolution and current state of employment law across the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland, a century after the 1920 Government of Ireland Act. Labour law, long debated for its legitimacy as a legal discipline, sits at the intersection of legal doctrine, political theory and social justice. The collapse of classical labour law models and the pressures of globalisation have further politicised the field. This study examines how partition and constitutional changes have affected shared legal origins, with a focus on statutory, constitutional and common law developments. It analyses collective and individual labour law, including health and safety, through the lens of historical and contemporary influences, such as Brexit and the Windsor Framework, highlighting how labour law continues to be shaped by broader social and political dynamics, creating both divergence and convergence across Northern Ireland and Ireland in response to changing domestic and international conditions.
ABSTRACT: This article examines British propaganda policy in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1982. In contrast with largely successful and routine coercive efforts to counter insurgencies in British colonies, tried and tested propaganda initiatives presented British governments with a Northern Ireland problem: how to respond to civil unrest and an armed insurgent movement close to the centre of power when subject to legal and media scrutiny. The proximity of Northern Ireland and the affinity of its dominant constituency of unionists, loyal to Britain, combined to hinder the transfer and application of otherwise seasoned strategies of propaganda and information warfare. The available archival records reveal how Britain's benign neglect of escalating civil unrest in Northern Ireland precipitated a series of information failures, undermining the government's attempts to secure the 'hearts and minds' of a fractured population relegated to the perimeter of British government priorities.
ABSTRACT: There are intense debates worldwide about cultural representations, including statues, flags, symbols, street names and history textbooks. They highlight the need to understand the political implications of how cultural entities are framed. Previous researchers have found that it matters whether framing narratives are inclusive or exclusive. Here, we hypothesise that inclusive narratives around the political symbols of ostensible out-groups will increase positive attitudes towards the symbols and increase support for their official adoption. Using data from (pre-registered) experiments in Ireland, North and South, we found asymmetric effects. When inclusively framed, ‘British’ symbols are more positively viewed by Southerners from the Republic of Ireland and Catholics from Northern Ireland and attract greater support as official features of a potential united Ireland. But no similar effects are observed on the views of Protestants from Northern Ireland about ‘Irish’ symbols. Antagonistic historical narratives over political symbols certainly matter, but the mutability of attitudes may vary across groups.
ABSTRACT: When the Irish foreign service was formed in 1919, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin lacked systematic policies for record-keeping. Based on a thorough understanding of the primary and secondary sources, this research focuses on the people, records management and material resources at work before the appointment of an official archivist in 1936. This article deals with the relevance of lawyers and journalists to the staff in Dublin, communication patterns, the employment of women, limited resources, legislation for records, and the influence of librarians during the period.
ABSTRACT: This article provides an overview of the first phase of the ARINS ‘North and South’ public opinion project on the island of Ireland, covering the years 2022–2024. The background and aims of the project are outlined, along with the methodologies employed. The principal findings are then presented. These include trends in voting intentions in hypothetical future referendums; the perceived acceptability of the outcome of such referendums; and attitudes towards preparation and planning for the possibility of Irish unification/reunification/unity. These findings indicate the current version of unification most likely to maximise acceptance of the outcome of the (potential) referendums. Subsequent sections summarise public opinion on core features of potential unification, notably public symbols and models of executive formation. Lastly, public perceptions of the potential economic consequences of unification are considered. We conclude by reflecting on future phases of the research programme. The second phase will start in 2026.
