This is CBS, I on the World. I'm John Batchel. To Ireland, and guided by my good colleague,

Judy Dempsey, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She's in Berlin, reflecting on a

revelatory story in the Financial Times that is new to me and not to Judy, which is that

Ireland, a member of the EU, not a member of NATO, an island divided by the prejudice of the

English crown once upon a time, is defenseless to Russian attack. I don't mean attack with weapons. I mean attack

hyper attack. Some enormous percentage of the world financial capitals depend upon the

undersea cables that flow out of the Irish shelf. They're not very deep. That's why the fishing's good. The Russians have

stalked them for weeks and months and years. In other words, it's not the eastern flank of the

EU or NATO that's exposed to Russian attack. It's the western flank. Once upon a time, Ireland

had eight warships. Now it has four. It has a surplus in the

budget and it likes the word neutral. Judy, a very good day to you. You're way ahead of me on this

story. I'm catching up. But the fact is that Ireland has a reputation for being ornery and a fighter

defending its own ground. What's happened?

Neutral. Where did it come from? Who does it help? Good evening to you.

Good evening, John. And thanks for having you on your show. This is such a story which I have

covered several times. Let's just put into perspective. Ireland is neutral, but that doesn't mean it

cannot defend its own security and intelligence, and particularly what happens under the

Irish Sea and on the Atlantic Ocean. Secondly, you must remember and your readers must understand

that Ireland has a very close connection with the big software companies in the United

States. And a lot of the software companies have huge investments in Ireland and based in

Dublin, the capital and in other cities. And they're employing a huge number of people. And what do

they need? They need underwater cables to transport all these communications

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