International Relations À La Carte: A New Swiss Neutrality in Europe

Date Published:

Apr 15, 1997

Abstract:

Conventional wisdom brings into question the utility of a foreign policy of neutrality in the post–Cold War era. Yet, while neutrality is clearly evolving, the European neutrals continue to maintain at least military neutrality. In Switzerland there is a much deeper affinity for neutrality — so much so that it is a part of the national ethos. The Swiss case is interesting because Switzerland is, at the same time, a microcosm of the European Community, and a pedantic democracy where the will of the majority can be obstructed by the few and old institutions are often more valued than progress and internationalism. Rather than greeting a new world order with open arms, Switzerland is nibbling at the margins of European and global integration, attempting to show neutrality is useful to the world, and picking and choosing its international relations á la carte.

Notes:

Working Paper 97–04, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, April 15, 1997.


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