Revitalizing the Irish Army Reserve Post-Commission on the Defence Forces: Moving from the Single Force Concept to a Total Force Policy

ABSTRACT

The security implications of Brexit, the potential resurgence of violence in Northern Ireland, a Defence Forces personnel retention crisis, cyber-attacks against governmental infrastructure, the Covid-19 Pandemic, and the Russo-Ukrainian War have all created significant challenges for the Defence Forces at a time when both the Permanent Defence Forces and the Reserve Defence Forces are at their lowest respective strengths in the history of the State. With naval vessels unable to put to sea due to crew shortages and the Air Corps similarly unable to defend Irish airspace, the discussion of defence reforms in Ireland has never been more heightened, especially with the 2022 publication of the long-awaited Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces. Amounting to the most in-depth introspective analysis of Irish defence since the foundation of the State, the Commission's Report advocated sweeping reforms across the Defence Forces;tripling defence spending, reforming command and control arrangements, additional naval vessels, purchasing modern fighter interceptors, and "the revitalisation of the Reserve Defence Force.” The creation of a Reserve "that can seamlessly train, operate and deploy with the Permanent Defence Force, nationally and internationally, " was one of the Commission's five core recommendations.In light of this, this chapter argues for the revitalization of the Army Reserve by moving away from the current Single Force Concept to a Total Force Policy. It proposes a new force structure for the Reserve, de-coupled from that of the Army, with the Reserve transitioning from a languishing infantry-dominated force to a vital specialist and skills focused component of the Defence Forces. This chapter proposes a solution to a legacy Irish defence problem, a reimagined Army Reserve tailored to counter real-world threats and challenges, the reasoning underpinning it, the contribution it could make to the Defence Forces, and the policy and legal requirements required to transition to it. The Commission on the Defence Forces argues for revitalizing the Army Reserve, herein lies one iteration of what that could look like. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.