Umstrittene Schweizer Sicherheitspolitik ... - ETH Zürich

The Graduate Institute
On balance, peace support operations have been successful compared
to inaction, but the success is always precarious and limited. That would
have to be kept in mind with any engagement Switzerland would undertake.
Widmer Martin: I would like you to reflect once more upon a possible
risk of isolation. One reason to bear in mind might be our country’s
neutrality. Is Switzerland, in your opinion, really as neutral as we are told
by the “classe politique”?
Krause Keith: Neutrality has a particular interpretation in Swiss policy.
It goes from the notion of permanent neutrality that was entrenched
relatively recently, after World War II, and very strongly embedded in
policy, to a somewhat more contemporary version that is often described
as active neutrality, an expression which I have heard many political
leaders use. The Swiss version of neutrality looks different than the
Swedish, the Irish or the Austrian one. This tells me that – and here I
would refer to Jürg Martin Gabriel, who has written extensively on this
issue – there is a core understanding of neutrality, but that it is a flexible
concept. There are some constraints on the way in which active neutrality
is understood, but Switzerland’s respect for things such as United
Nations Security Council embargos and different forms of measures is
clearly considered now as being consistent with neutrality and as being
in respect of international laws.
However, I perhaps would put the question differently and ask: neutrality
between whom? Of course, I do not believe Switzerland is neutral
with respect to international terrorist threats, because international terrorism
can be a threat to Swiss national interests, too. Neither do I think
that cooperating to combat such threats compromises neutrality in its core
sense of being able to stand aside. Neutrality does have a rather significant
role in the international community. For an observer of the activities in
Geneva it is clear that many of the most creative diplomatic efforts involve
undertaking a dialogue with non-state armed groups and the willingness
to be a place where people can meet very quietly to negotiate. This is a
role that is recognized and respected, a role that allows Swiss diplomats
and officials around the world to have access to things diplomats and
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