Neutrality does not promote peace in itself. Historically, neutrality is neither a necessary condition nor a sufficient condition for the success of good offices in armed conflicts, writes the historian Liliane Stadler.
In Switzerland, it is often assumed that there is a cause and effect link between permanent neutrality and the capacity of a State to provide what are called good offices. This is also the case within the framework of the current debate on the initiative on neutrality, which will be subject to the vote in 2026.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sparked international discussions on neutrality and reorientation of previously neutral states. Thus, Finland and Sweden joined NATO. In comparison, Switzerland is still widely perceived today on the international level as the country which has since been the longest and the most strictly neutral.
Nevertheless, since 2022, the war in Ukraine has also led to Switzerland to a deep discussion on neutrality. Following the takeover by the Federal Council for EU sanctions against Russia, an initiative committee made up of representatives of the Pro Schweiz association filed in November 2022 the so -called neutrality initiative.
This plans to give a definition of neutrality in the Constitution, which is based on the following components: the neutrality of Switzerland must be perpetual and armed, exclude memberships in military and defense alliances, prevent participation in multilateral sanctions. At the same time, Switzerland should highlight its role as a neutral mediator in armed conflicts.
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Good offices include all measures that a state, an international organization or a non -state player can take to contribute, as a third uninvited part, to the peaceful resolution of an armed conflict. This term notably covers the following services: peace talks, protective power mandates and mediation services. Historically, the settlement of disputes and arbitration have also been one of the good offices.
Switzerland, however, has not acquired its reputation as a provider of long -standing offices as a mediator, but due to numerous mandates of protective power in the 19th and 20th centuries. Switzerland has sometimes managed, for years, diplomatic communication channels between enemy states which had officially broken their bilateral relations. During the First World War, Switzerland managed 36 mandates of protective power and much more during the Second World War.
After the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, Switzerland, for example, assumed, with Sweden, Czechoslovakia and Poland, a mandate of protective power on the intercreen border. This mandate still continues today. During the Cold War too, Switzerland mainly focused on protective power mandates and humanitarian aid.
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These conflicts where Switzerland has brought peace
This content was published on
21 nov. 2022
Switzerland has a long tradition in resolving conflicts, but the method has evolved over time.
Read more these conflicts where Switzerland has brought peace
A mixed assessment
In the field of mediation between enemy parties, the balance sheet of Switzerland is however mixed from a historical point of view.
Overall, mediation is a phenomenon that dates from the post-war period, from 1945, and the first Swiss attempt, during the Suez crisis in 1956, did not succeed. At the time, Switzerland had attempted to settle the war of aggression waged by France and Great Britain against Egypt by peace talks on Swiss soil. However, this proposal was rejected by all the parties to the conflict and by the United Nations, of which Switzerland was not even a member at the time.
In 1961, Switzerland was successful by actively supporting Evian’s peace talks between Algeria and France as a mediator. They resulted in the independence of Algeria vis-à-vis France in 1962.
Other mediation attempts in the context of the hostage affair in Iran in 1979 and the Malouine crisis between Great Britain and Argentina in 1982 have each been rejected by the parties to the conflict. In 1991, after the withdrawal of the Soviet Union of Afghanistan, Switzerland played the role of mediator between the Afghan regime and the Moudjahideen resistance movement, but the regime fell in 1992 with the resignation of Afghan President Mohammed Najibullah.
The 1990s were considered by history specialists as a decade during which Switzerland’s good offices in the field of mediation have really taken off.
In 1991, in the context of the Gulf War, Switzerland welcomed a summit meeting between the American Secretary of State James Baker and his Iraqi counterpart Tariq Aziz. Edouard Brunner, a former Swiss Secretary of State, was appointed representative of the UN in the Middle East conflict and his successor, Klaus Jacobi, embarked on the Balkans for peace talks between Serbian President Slobodan Milošević and his Croatian counterpart Franjo Tuđman.
Between 2000 and 2018, Switzerland was officially active in the field of mediation in around twenty conflicts, notably in Sudan, Nepal, Syria, Colombia, and as a host of the Iranian nuclear program in Lausanne between 2008 and 2015.
As president of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Switzerland managed the so -called trilateral contact group on Ukraine in 2014 and since then, it has noticed in the peaceful resolution of conflicts in Tunisia, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. But finally, the results of good offices in these cases is mixed.
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Other actors come into play
It is not necessarily due to the efforts of official Switzerland – these are extremely complex conflicts. Added to this is the fact that Switzerland is not the only good service provider. International organizations, other neutral states and especially more and more non -neutral states engage in mediation during conflicts.
Thus, Switzerland certainly organized in 2021 a meeting at the top between the American president of the time, Joe Biden, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. But the American withdrawal from Afghanistan the same year was negotiated in Qatar. In 2022 and 2024, Switzerland again organized two conferences on the war declared by Russia in Ukraine. But so far, the real negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have taken place in Türkiye and Saudi Arabia. Under the chairmanship of Donald Trump, the United States has sometimes committed itself to a peaceful solution. Meanwhile, China’s mediation has restored diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia in 2023.
Overall, it is therefore relatively difficult to deduce from history a clear model or a bond of cause and imperative effect between neutrality and good offices.
On the historical level, neutrality has been moderately decisive in the allocation of mediation terms and in the success of peace negotiations. The good offices of Switzerland are appreciated at the international level and the experience of the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs in this area is today considerable.
This pleads for Switzerland to continue to engage in the field of good offices. However, if the initiative on neutrality was to lead in the ballot boxes, it would be for reasons of tradition and national identity, and not because of the widely widespread hypothesis according to which neutrality in itself is favorable to peace.
Rely and verified by Benjamin von Wyl. Translated from theGerman usingAn automatic translation tool by Emilie Ridard/Ptur
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