The ‘Global Ireland’ Policy platform, Small Island Developing States and the geopolitics of an interstitial Ireland

Through its Global Ireland strategy, the Government of Ireland is projecting an ambitious foreign policy platform into the global commons. A range of policy modules have been developed and are being deployed discursively in specific targeted markets. It is an ambitious programme, for a small country. Common narratives of Ireland and Irish identity are being projected fuzzily, to best effect, in different regions. Commonly held policy narratives include i) Ireland as a networked member of the international economic order, ii) Ireland as a European Union member of long standing, iii) Ireland as an edge-island, iv) Ireland as an emigrant sending state with a widely distributed diaspora. Here, I find that Ireland successfully deploys these sometimes contradictory narratives from a deliberately interstitial foundation in space. The nexus of connection and separation is creatively deployed in these Irish policies and the Government of Ireland is seen to be performing a powerful political geography as a result.