CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 02/2016

LE MONDE ESSAY
Austria‘s neutrality in changing times -
adaptation and continuity
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After the Cold War in Europe, Austria’s neutrality had survived as a political and
legal institution beyond just military non-alignment in Europe.
Dr. Hans Winkler
Director of the
Diplomatic Academy
of Vienna
is a former Austrian
diplomat and Secretary of
State.
Upon graduation from the
University of Vienna (Dr.
iuris) and the Diplomatic
Academy of Vienna, Hans
Winkler began his career in
the Austrian foreign
ministry in 1970. In 2005,
Winkler was appointed
Secretary of State in the
Ministry for European and
International Affairs, a
position which he held until
December 2008. On 1 April
2009, Winkler was
appointed Director of the
Diplomatic Academy of
Vienna.
A
researcher from the prestigious University of
Oxford, who is writing a book on neutrality
after the Cold War in Europe, recently asked
me about the Austrian practice of neutrality since the
fall of the Iron Curtain. He was puzzled that neutrality
had survived as a political and legal institution beyond
just military non-alignment in Europe and wondered
why Austria finds it so difficult to make a
complete transition from neutrality to non-neutrality.
To understand why Austrians today still hold
neutrality in high esteem and why neutrality is still a
relevant and constructive and appropriate security
strategy, it is useful to recall the origin of Austria’s
permanent neutrality.
Austria declared its ”Permanent Neutrality“ by
way of adoption of a constitutional law on 26 October
1955 “by its own free will”. This made it clear that
Austria’s neutrality was not imposed by the victorious
Allies and not guaranteed by them, in particular
not by the Soviet Union. Of course, the adoption of
the status of neutrality was, in a way, the “price” Austria
had to pay for achieving what it had tried to obtain
in vain for more than 10 years: to regain full independence
and sovereignty after the defeat of Nazi
Germany.
The Soviet agreement to grant Austria full independence
in 1955 had of course to do with the global
political situation and was part of the larger strategic
issues of the Cold War. Following Stalin‘s death in
March 1953, the Austrian government, headed by
Federal Chancellor Julius Raab, sought to break the
stalemate by proposing that Austria would not join
any military bloc. This was significant as both, the
Western Allies and the Soviet Union, feared that the
other side was preparing to incorporate its respective
occupation zones into its military bloc.
On 15 May 1955, the State Treaty was finally signed.
Austria’s permanent neutrality, a specific prohibition
to join military alliances and a ban on foreign
military bases in Austria, was not included in the
State Treaty (the word neutrality does not appear)
but incorporated into the Austrian constitution by
the Constitutional Law on the Permanent Neutrality
of Austria on 26 October 1955.
Even today, many Austrians associate, in their
minds, the status of their country as a permanently
neutral state with the remarkable political, economic
and social success in the years following the conclusion
of the State Treaty. From the beginning, two things
were clear: that Austria would ideologically be firmly
rooted in the family of Western pluralistic democracies
and that Austria would not be prevented from participating
in the economic integration of Western Europe,
including participation in the Marshall Plan, and Austria
together with other European neutrals also joined
the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).
Immediately after the conclusion of the State Treaty,
Austria – contrary to neutral Switzerland – became
a member of the United Nations and also joined
the Council of Europe. Austria believed that the system
of collective security in the UN Charter was
compatible with its status as a permanently neutral
country and membership in the Council of Europe
was seen as representing the democratic and human
values, which Austria has chosen to fully embrace.
On the economic side, the free trade agreements
concluded between Austria and the EC in 1972 were
regarded as a sufficient basis for economic cooperation
with the Community over the next 15 years. It
was only in the late 1980s that the question of joining
the EC was raised again. On 17 July 1989, Foreign
Minister Alois Mock submitted Austria‘s application
for EC membership. The question at the time was
whether Austria should make a formal reservation as
to its neutrality. In the end, no such reservation was
made but it was made clear that Austria would join
as a neutral country while still willing to comply with
all obligations resulting from membership in the EU.
It would remain a neutral country, both in a constitutional
as well as in an international law sense.
PHOTO: ERNST WEINGARTNER
From the Austrian experience with its status of
neutrality, one can draw some general conclusions
about neutrality and the foreign and security policy
that goes with it.
Neutrality can come in very different formats and
countries choosing to adopt the status of neutrality
remain free to interpret neutrality according to the
respective country’s requirements. The following
features are pertinent when interpreting the Austrian
experience with its permanent neutrality:
• Neutrality is a foreign and security policy strategy
aimed at the promotion of international peace and
the peaceful settlement of disputes. Armed conflict is
anathema to the neutrality policy and the neutral
state must do everything in its power to prevent international
armed conflicts.
• The foreign policy of a neutral state must be credible
and must be seen as serving international peace
and security by the community of states at large. As
such, the neutral state is well-equipped to render services
to the international community, for example by
serving as a mediator or as place for international
negotiations as recent events have shown. A neutral
state is also ideally suited to serve as the headquarters
of international organisations.
• The neutral status does not prevent a state from
freely choosing its political and constitutional system.
There is no obligation to remain ideologically
neutral for a neutral state.
• The status of neutrality does not prevent a neutral
state from being part of regional arrangements, including
those which also play a role in security matters,
such as the EU and OSCE.
• Neutrality is no obstacle to full participation in a
system of collective security as in the Charter of the
United Nations. Austria, therfore, has participated in
numerous international peace-keeping missions.
This has been seen from the beginning as a valuable
contribution of a neutral state to the maintenance of
peace and international security.
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