“Genuine peace must be the product of many nations…”
“Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process.” — John F. Kennedy
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Ireland, UNIFIL and the hard calculus of stabilising Gaza
When nations talk about “stabilisation” today, they are describing an uneasy, long-term business: dismantling armed networks, reconstituting local policing, protecting aid corridors and — crucially — building institutions that can outlast foreign boots on the ground. Those are precisely the tasks envisaged in one version of a proposed International Stabilisation Force for Gaza, floated in U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan. The idea has prompted a familiar question in Dublin and capitals across Europe: could small but experienced peacekeepers like Ireland’s Defence Forces play a role?
Ireland’s public profile in UN peacekeeping rests largely on decades in southern Lebanon under UNIFIL. That mission, which until now has been Ireland’s principal overseas deployment with some 300 troops, is due to wind down in 2027. The timing has compelled military and political voices in Dublin to consider where those seasoned personnel might be useful next — and whether Gaza could be it.
Credibility meets complexity
Retired Chief of Staff Mark Mellett tells a familiar story: Ireland has earned trust in Lebanon by doing the unglamorous work well — mediating, patrolling, protecting civilians. “We’ve built credibility in the region,” he said in an interview, adding that a redeployment to Gaza is “viable” in principle. Retired commanders who served in Chad, Liberia and UNIFIL say that kind of institutional memory — junior officers who can lean on veterans — is precisely what complex stabilisation campaigns need.
Garry McKeon, who helped establish Irish contingents in Africa, describes the Irish approach as pragmatic and pragmatic in ways that matter on the ground: “It’s about how are we going to do this in a way that achieves the mission without unnecessarily antagonising local people.” That kind of cultural sensitivity and day-to-day judgment can make a difference in crowded urban theatres such as Gaza City.
The demands of modern stabilisation
But credibility on parade ground and credibility in the rubble-strewn alleys of Gaza are not the same. Former commanders stress that any Irish participation would require capabilities beyond helmets and good will: robust armoured protection, counter-drone and surveillance assets, and intelligence capacity to detect subterranean networks — particularly if tasked with confronting tunnels and weapons workshops.
There are political and legal hurdles too. A UN mandate, many argue, is essential for legitimacy. “Without the UN you become a target,” Mellett warned, noting the UN’s weakened state yet insisting that international legitimacy is non-negotiable. France and Germany have publicly pushed for the UN to be central to any stabilisation architecture; the Trump plan, by contrast, offers a more limited UN role focused on aid distribution — raising the thorny question of who provides legal cover for any soldiers on the ground.
Hamas, timing and the trap of interim authorities
Even if Dublin decides it has the troops and the will, the situation inside Gaza makes any mission precarious. Media reports indicate Hamas is already moving to reassert policing functions and arm its networks. Retired commanders caution that if an armed group resists an interim authority — or if local governance is absent — peacekeepers will confront a mission that is neither peacekeeping in the traditional sense nor a full-scale combat operation. “It’s not going to be a smooth ride,” one veteran said bluntly.
That ambiguity has practical consequences. How do you train a police force when the only effective local security actors are armed and often at odds with external plans? Who will provide judicial oversight, prisons, corrections and basic municipal services? Those are not details for later; they determine whether stabilisation simply holds territory or actually enables society to rebuild.
Lessons from other theatres
Irish veterans point to long, uneasy lessons from Afghanistan and elsewhere: militaries can stabilise, but security without governance collapses into cycles of dependency. McKeon estimates reconstruction in Gaza could stretch 25 to 30 years — a reminder that initial troop deployments are only one chapter, not the ending.
There are also broader geopolitical undercurrents. The debate over a UN role in Gaza intersects with shifting great-power dynamics in New York and beyond. If Washington prefers a non-UN frame, European capitals face a choice: press for multilateral legitimacy or build parallel coalitions that could complicate consent on the ground and at the Security Council.
Questions for small states — and for the international community
For Ireland, the calculus is not just military. There are political, moral and practical questions: Does Dublin want to place soldiers in a high-risk, urban stabilisation mission that could last decades? Can parliament and public opinion sustain such a commitment? How would Ireland balance its reputable neutrality with participation in a force that some might perceive as partisan?
For the broader international community, Gaza poses an older but stubborn question: in the face of collapsed infrastructure and competing armed authorities, who shoulders the long-term obligation of rebuilding once immediate hostilities subside? If the answer defaults to a patchwork of national contingents, will that produce the legitimacy and continuity needed for sustainable peace?
Stabilisation is a process, not a moment. As Kennedy put it six decades ago, it must change with each generation’s challenge. Ireland’s UNIFIL experience gives it a voice at the table. Whether that translates into boots in Gaza — and whether such boots can be more than a temporary footprint — remains a question for an uneasy world to answer together.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
