ABSTRACT
As two islands situated separately from the European mainland and at an appreciable distance from Russia, the United Kingdom and Ireland are relatively independent of Russia and its politics. That said, both are as susceptible to the pressures of the globalising world and thus, for both, Russia is a state that warrants attention, albeit in the case of each, for quite different reasons. Close geographically and historically, Ireland and the UK are nevertheless vastly different foreign policy actors, not least by virtue of the one having been colonized by the other. They are distinguished today by disparities in size, resources and global influence and inevitably these factors too result in each having quite different relations with Russia. Those differences extend to each state's relationship with the EU as well: Ireland's reputation within the EU is a positive one, that of a committed and well-adapted member state; the UK, meanwhile, is most often characterized as an ‘awkward’ partner, whose attitude to EU membership is ambivalent at best.
