Description
Book SynopsisNeutrality serves different purposes during times of war and peace. Notions of Neutralities' portrays those historical challenges that neutrals faced, and are still facing, to maintain some form of economic stability and political order as chaos and wars rage. Neutrals are exposed to existential issues and questions of civil-society, international politics, and morality, in a world defiant to principles of universal peace. Every age has its own armed conflicts and while the questions they raise are often the same, the answers are different because the international word order changes. Is neutrality justifiable even when the humanity of civilization is at risk as in the Second World War or the wars of the post-Cold War era? Can those who refuse the call to arms still act by providing humanitarian services to contain the impact of war or, on the contrary, are neutrals shut-off from global politics mere weaklings that suffer what they must?This book addresses such questions through an in
Trade ReviewThe book demonstrates convincingly that the notion of neutrality only as a phenomenon and a part of the Cold War is false in many ways. The concept of neutrality has proven time and again that it can adapt to new situations. Neutrality was never monolithic but rather a fluid and flexible concept. This book captures a wide spectrum of neutrality. It stretches from a passive and isolationist stance at one end, to an engaged and interventionist approach at the other. Neutrality in the twenty-first century does not mean to stay out but to engage. It is not about disengagement from world affairs. It is about active engagement in the international systems, and involvement in diplomacy, politics, economics, and humanitarian aspects; neutral states participate in crisis-management operations and conflict avoidance around the globe. -- Heinz Gärtner, University of Vienna
The concept of neutrality has been around for more than 500 years in international diplomatic circles. Switzerland may be the world’s most famous – and one of the few widely known – examples of state neutrality. Yet, the actual meaning and practical implications of neutrality, both historically and in the international politics of the 21st Century, are poorly understood by most policy makers and rarely examined by serious international relations scholars. This superb, newly edited volume from Pascal Lottaz and Herbert R. Reginbogin makes a major contribution toward filling this gap and is a must-read for all serious students and practioners of international relations today. -- Bruce M. Bagley, University of Miami
As Thucydides tells us, for the Melians, neutrality was the way of the weak; for Elie Wiesel it is the refuge of the immoral. In examining this topic through a modern lens, this book admirably resurrects the concept of neutrality, a branch of international relations and international law, one that has fallen into the recesses of the American intellectual mind. The book’s chapters together trace the varied intellectual doctrines of neutrality in the development of international law. The 13 essays include papers on maritime neutrality, Nordic conceptions of neutrality, Dutch conceptions of neutrality, the experience of Japan and the Soviet Union as ‘neutrals,’ the Vatican as neutral, the non-aligned movement, and the experience of the Board of International Settlement (BIS) during World War II. Reginbogin, Lottaz, and their colleagues show how the concept of neutrality can be used to advance both collective security and cultural human rights norms. It is a book that should find its place on international relations, history, international law, and social ethics bookshelves. -- Marshall J. Breger, The Catholic University of America
Table of ContentsPreface, Pascal Lottaz and Herbert R. Reginbogin Introduction, Pascal Lottaz and Herbert R. Reginbogin Chapter 1: A Three-Fold Struggle over Neutrality: The American Experience in the 1930s, Stephen C. Neff Chapter 2: Changing Concepts and Understandings of Neutrality in the Cold War: The Neutral and Non-Aligned States (N+N), Oliver Bange Chapter 3: “Neutrality, our most precious treasure, keeps war far away.” Narratives of Dutch Neutrality, 1840-1940, Wim Klinkert Chapter 4: The Forgotten History of Maritime Neutrality, 1500–1800, Leos Müller Chapter 5: The British View of Neutrality in 1872, Elizabeth Chadwick Chapter 6: Neutrality and Wartime Japan, Pascal Lottaz Chapter 7: "Private Neutrality”: The Bank for International Settlements, Pascal Lottaz and Herbert R. Reginbogin Chapter 8: Neutrality as an Instrument of Soviet Foreign Policy, 1945-53, Peter Ruggenthaler Chapter 9: Neutrality: Past Lessons & Visions: Providing Peace, Security, and Justice in the 21st Century, Herbert R. Reginbogin Chapter 10: The Vatican, WWII, and Asia: Lessons of Neutral Diplomacy, Pascal Lottaz and Florentino Rodao Chapter 11: The Evolution of Yugoslav Non-alignment: How Yugoslavia Abandoned its Opposition to Neutrality, Tvrtko Jakovina Chapter 12: Politics of Neutrality in the Post-Soviet Space: A Comparison of Concepts, Practices, and Outcomes of Neutrality in Moldova, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine 1990–2015, David X. Noack Conclusion, Pascal Lottaz and Herbert R. Reginbogin
