Werner Fasslabend and Christoph Schwarz
Neutrality as Security Policy?
Austria in an Integration-Based European Security Order
AIES Comment 2026/5
29.04.2026
Austria’s policy of permanent neutrality has historically been a cornerstone of its foreign and security policy identity. Emerging from the geopolitical circumstances of the Cold War, neutrality functioned both as a prerequisite for the restoration of sovereignty in 1955 and as a strategic instrument that allowed Austria to act as intermediary between the Western and Eastern blocs. This role enabled Austria to derive security in principle from diplomatic relevance rather than military deterrence. However, the structural conditions that once sustained this model have fundamentally changed. European integration, the end of bipolarity, and the resurgence of great-power rivalry have transformed Austria’s strategic environment. Today, Austria’s security is increasingly embedded within European frameworks, particularly the European Union, while the central institutional structure of European defence remains NATO, from which Austria is excluded. The paper argues that the key challenge is not whether neutrality should be maintained, as public and thus political sentiment would not permit such as step in the foreseeable future, but how it can be credibly reconciled with Austria’s participation in collective European security and defence structures.
