The Role of the Irish Defence Forces in Conventional Disarmament

The Irish Defence Forces (DF), through the Department of Defence, has provided military and technical advice to various government departments over many years. In recent years one of the most significant of these contributions has been support to the Department of Foreign Affairs in the implementation of Ireland’s conventional disarmament policy. DF expertise has been utilised across a broad spectrum of issues relating to conventional weapons systems and their use. These issues are somewhat loosely regarded as part of the disarmament universe but could be more precisely described as International Humanitarian Law or IHL. IHL in the military world tends to be known as the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) or by the older term, the Law of War.