Speaker: Professor Rory Montgomery (Queen’s University Belfast)

Chair: Professor Marsha Henry (Queen’s University Belfast)

European integration, the war in Ukraine, and the possible re-election of Donald Trump are changing the European security and defence landscape.  However, in Ireland debate continues to be dominated by disagreement on whether recent or future developments might breach the principle of neutrality. 

Drawing on his many years of diplomatic experience, Rory Montgomery will analyse what Irish neutrality means today, and consider how Ireland’s security and defence policy might evolve in coming years.  He will also look at the implications of this issue for a possible united Ireland.

Professor Rory Montgomery

An Honorary Professor of Practice at the Mitchell Institute, Rory Montgomery is a former Irish diplomat who served as Permanent Representative to the EU, Ambassador to France and Second Secretary General at the Departments of the Taoiseach and Foreign Affairs with responsibility for EU issues, in particular Brexit.

He was a member of the Irish team which negotiated the Good Friday Agreement and the establishment of the North/South institutions.

He is now Chair of the Press Council of Ireland, a member of the Royal Irish Academy, and was appointed as Honorary Professor of Practice to the Mitchell Institute in 2019.

Rory is the presenter of the monthly ARINS podcast on issues relating to the future of Ireland North and South, and has contributed to the Irish Times, Fortnight, and the Dublin Review of Books.

Professor Marsha Henry

Professor Marsha Henry is the Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton Chair in Women, Peace, Security and Justice.  Her research is concerned with the gendered and racialised politics of violence; militarisation; global south development; international aid and intervention; and conflict, peace, and security.  She is the author of several books, the latest of which is: The End of Peacekeeping:  Gender, Race, and the Martial Politics of Intervention (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024).

Marsha has also advised a number of national governments on women’s participation in the armed forces, combatting sexual exploitation and abuse in humanitarian settings, and developing anti-racist and diversity strategies in foreign policy ministries.