Hans Köchler

AUSTRIA, NEUTRALITY AND NON-ALIGNMENT

INTERNATIONAL PROGRESS ORGANIZATION

Studies in International Relations, Vol. XXXVI

59 pages (2021), ISBN 978-3-900704-28-5

Expanded version of a lecture delivered by the President of the International Progress Organization at the conference, “The Rise of Asia in Global History and Perspective: 60 Years after Belgrade – What Non-alignment in a Multipolar World?” at University of Le Havre, France, 11 February 2021.

The publication uncovers a largely hidden aspect of Austrian history after World War II, namely the role of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the reemergence – amidst the superpower rivalry of the Cold War – of Austria as a sovereign state. The lecture also documents the intensive and constructive cooperation of the founding fathers of Austria’s second Republic with the leading figures of the Bandung Conference (1955) and juxtaposes the country’s early commitment to a strictly non-aligned foreign policy with today’s ever closer integration into the North Atlantic security architecture, a development that has undermined Austria’s status of permanent neutrality. 

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