Joe Kennedy Treads Careful Path as U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland

BELFAST, Northern Ireland – Joe Kennedy III had the style to Northern Ireland that any American diplomat would envy: launching the Air Force one step behind President Biden, red hair blowing in the wind as he Biden introduced him to someone who was waiting for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The rest of his quest doesn’t seem as engaging.

Mr. Kennedy, a 42-year-old former Democratic congressman from Massachusetts and one of the nation’s most prominent Irish-American politicians, is serving as special envoy for economic affairs in Northern Ireland. at a time when the country’s politics are crippled. by deep factional divisions.

The dysfunction could complicate Mr. Kennedy’s mission to attract American investment in the North. And his limited job title will make it difficult for him even to consider the stalemate, which began last year when the territory’s power-sharing government collapsed in a dispute over post-Brexit trade rules.

“I remarked: ‘Focusing on prosperity is the wise thing to do so you don’t get caught up in politics,’” Mr. Kennedy said in an interview on Tuesday. “That would prolong a conversation,” he added with a laugh.

“Politics is for the parties to settle,” Mr. Kennedy said, quickly returning to the State Department script. “However, the implications of those choices will have implications for some economic outcomes.”

Northern Ireland needs to settle this dispute and restore the government if it wants to attract more American money.

That would be the implication, if not the title, of Mr. Kennedy’s first speech as envoy, which will take place on Wednesday at a conference in Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of National Day. Independence. Good Friday deal.

For Mr. Kennedy, success could open a way back from the political wilderness. He was once a rising star in the Democratic Party, but his trajectory was disrupted when he gave up his House seat to mount a main challenge failed against Senator Edward J. Markey in 2020. He became the first Kennedy to lose an election in Massachusetts.

While his famous name and flashy appearance has attracted much attention, Mr. Kennedy’s work speaks to the more modest role the United States plays today in Northern Ireland. In 1998, President Bill Clinton’s special envoy, George J. Mitchell, brokered an agreement to end decades of violence known as the Troubles. Mr. Kennedy, according to his own description, will be more active as a cheerleader.

United States is largest foreign investor in Northern Ireland, with Allstate, Seagate and others having invested £1.5 billion ($1.86 billion) over the past decade. That’s a fraction of the American presence in the Republic of Ireland, where low taxes and stable politics have attracted more than $350 billion.

Mr. Biden, who travel to Belfast To mark the anniversary, he left Mr. Kennedy in the city as he headed south to explore his ancestral roots. Since then, Mr. Kennedy has spent his days meeting with businessmen, entrepreneurs and local heads of every American company with operations in Northern Ireland. He also met the leaders of all the major political parties.

“I am here to advocate for the people of Northern Ireland,” he said. “I’m here to do it whether they have three colors on the front or Union Jack.”

Mr. Kennedy’s ecumenical tone is no coincidence. His appointment last December was greeted with caution by some unionists, who are in favor of remaining in the UK and are predominantly Protestant. They mumbled that Mr Kennedy, with Irish Catholic roots and his Irish Catholic boss, Mr Biden, would support the nationalists who seek a united Ireland and are mostly Catholic. (Democratic Union Party lead to the downfall of the government by withdrawing from the Northern Ireland assembly.)

Initially, Mr. Kennedy said, he was also worried that his name might be an obstacle. But so far, he said, he’s been met with a bit of doubt. “People will project on me all sorts of things; some of them are good, some of them are not very good,” he said. “You have to navigate through that.”

Mr. Kennedy said his eight years in Congress prepared him for the position. He compared his old county, which includes the prosperous suburbs of Boston and older industrial towns on the south coast of Massachusetts, to Northern Ireland, with the high-tech hub around Belfast and the interior agricultural land.

Representative Richard Neal, a Democrat from Massachusetts and one of the most influential legislators on Irish affairs, said: “He has a high reputation. “But he has a difficult task ahead of him. Balance is everything here.”

And the Northern Ireland envoy position doesn’t offer the same high visibility as when Mr. Mitchell first held the post in 1995. Now 89 years old and undergoing cancer treatment, Mr. Mitchell was here this week for Inauguration of the bronze bust his at Queen’s University in Belfast. His keynote speech, in which he recounted the dramatic final days of negotiations and urged the government to be restored, moved some in the audience to tears.

In a brief interview, Mr. Mitchell said he owed his success to the delay Mr. Clinton gave him in conducting the negotiations. Mr. Kennedy is unlikely to enjoy that kind of freedom. US officials said he was angered when the State Department refused to allow him to travel to Northern Ireland while Britain was negotiating with the European Union over trade deals.

While Mr Biden has shown an interest in Irish affairs – he pressed Mr Sunak to sign a trade deal with Brussels – the relative peace in Northern Ireland ensures that this will not be a priority for Mr. The White House looks like it was in the 1990s, especially in the face of concerns like China and the war in Ukraine.

Richard N. Haass, who was appointed special envoy by President George W. Bush in 2001 to succeed Mr. Mitchell, said: “The fact that Northern Ireland is no longer in danger removes the urgency of the situation. . “The progress already made makes it harder to make more progress.”

Mr Haass also said the nature of the problem in Northern Ireland – an insecure, stubborn coalition party – does not support US foreign policy in the way that previous problems, like disarming the Republican Army Ireland or loyal paramilitary forces, did. “We are not the best place to reassure union members,” he said.

That hasn’t stopped other US officials from highlighting their case. The US ambassador to London, Jane D. Hartley, warned that US executives would discourage investment because of chronic unrest.

“You want to say, ‘Guys, come together,'” she said in an interview.

Political analysts in Northern Ireland say people are eager to see if Mr. Kennedy can deliver an investment package. He said he was open to sending a delegation from Northern Ireland to Silicon Valley or Hollywood, once he identified the kind of business people in the North wanted.

But some note that even if Mr. Kennedy succeeds in attracting investors, there is still a risk that it could cause further discord.

“There are quite a few examples of them disagreeing on how to spend the money,” said Katy Hayward, a professor of politics at Queen’s University, pointing to previous US investment campaign controversies after the signing of the Agreement. Good Friday.

As he began his assignment, Mr. Kennedy faced another bit of political dilemma: it was reported that his uncle, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was planning to challenge Mr. Biden himself. Mr. Kennedy, who is known as a leader of the anti-vaccination movement, has being criticized by my family members.

“I love my uncle,” Mr. Kennedy said. But he added: “I am honored to serve President Biden in this capacity and I look forward to supporting the president’s re-election.”