The Tánaiste — who is also responsible for foreign affairs and defence — is to convene a consultative forum on international security policy, and there is unlikely to be a shortage of contributors.

It’s interesting to consider one particular aspect of our security commitments when it comes to neutrality.

As reported here yesterday, the Garda security force is particularly focused on hybrid threats, which are seen as campaigns typically orchestrated or funded by hostile states to destabilise countries, including through disinformation and backing radical organisations, such as far-right groups.

In an ironic twist, one of the factors which has long aided Ireland’s neutrality — our location out on the periphery of Europe — may now be making us more of a target: the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats says our geographical position, maritime security area, and location as home of major tech multinationals combine to make threats to Irish citizens and the country’s economic wellbeing very real.

This underscores a key reality of modern-day terrorism, that national borders and jurisdictions mean very little.

Disinformation campaigns which are spread online, for instance, are not held up at passport control; neither are the cyberattacks which have already stuck here, such as the ransomware attack on the HSE two years ago.

One matter which the Tánaiste’s forum may have to figure out is what neutrality actually means in the modern world — and whether the definition which has served us for decades is as relevant now.