Multilateralism: From 'Plato's cave' to the European Community 1945-73

Ireland’s post‑1945 foreign policy shifted from a defence of absolute sovereignty and conservative neutralism towards an activist multilateral internationalism at the UN and culminated in EC accession in 1973. The chapter analyses Ireland’s adaptation to the post‑1945 international order, tracing the evolution from sovereignty‑centred diplomacy and neutralism to active multilateral engagement in the UN and regional integration into the European Community. It demonstrates how economic failure and continued dependence on Britain exposed the limits of purely legal‑political conceptions of independence, compelling a reorientation towards trade liberalisation, Europeanisation and internationalisation. The chapter partially reassesses the legacies of wartime neutrality and the ‘Plato’s cave’ thesis, showing that Ireland was never fully isolated and instead used specialised UN agencies, OEEC/OECD and the Council of Europe to position itself as a constructive small state actor before UN entry in 1955. It explores the emergence of Irish ‘neutralism’ as a morally charged, pro‑Western yet anti‑imperialist stance, especially under Frank Aiken, who leveraged Ireland’s middle‑power role at the UN on decolonisation, human rights and collective security. Finally, it argues that EC accession both codified Ireland’s move away from an exclusive sovereignty discourse and forced a re‑imagining of Irish nationalism amid the challenge posed by the Northern Ireland Troubles.