By Dr. Brendan Flynn*

Congrats to the editors of the 2019 volume of the Defence Forces Review: Prof. Ben Tonra (SPIRe, UCD), Dr. Eugenio Lilli (Clinton Institute) and Lt. Cdr. Paul Hegarty (Defence Forces Command and Staff School).

The publication is a unique example of collaboration between our armed forces and academics and other civilian experts, with a very wide variety of topics covered this year: cyber risks, technology, organisational culture, challenges for peacekeeping and the evolving nature of security threats.

Eoin McNamara (University of Tartu, Estonia) makes during his paper on ‘Beware the Boomerang Effects: Western Risk Society and the Strategic Backlashes of Military Technological Modernisation’

For anyone interested in international relations, security studies and defence policy with an Irish focus, it is a must read and can be found at: https://www.military.ie/en/public-information/publications/defence-forces-review/

Lt. Shane Mulchay (Naval Service) explains the strategic importance of sub-sea cables in Ireland’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

For those of you who follow things on Twitter you can get a flavor of the proceedings at:https://twitter.com/hashtag/DFReview2019?src=hash

Well done all!

Dr. Brendan Flynn is a lecturer at the School of Political Science and Sociology, NUI, Galway. His research interests include maritime security and defence and security studies more broadly. Recent publications include: Flynn, Brendan (2019) “From hand-me-down navies to niche players? Comparing the navies of (very) small European states”, pp. 51-70 in McCabe, Robert, Deborah Sanders and Ian Speller (eds.) Europe, Small Navies and Maritime Security Balancing Traditional Roles and Emergent Threats in the 21st Century.