Introduction

There is probably no policy so controversial, so subject to contrasting and contradictory treatment and interpretation, as neutrality. Ostensibly, a strange and inexplicable paradox. Why should neutrality, and particularly permanent neutrality, be despised by any political actor? What policy could be more desirable than that which rejects the use of physical force for the advancement of foreign policy goals? And yet, in the eyes of a state engaged in war this logic is apparently less than obvious. A state whose vital interests - perhaps even whose very existence as a sovereign entity - are at stake (in particular when it has been the object of aggression), cannot look with indifference, and certainly not with approval, on those seeking to escape the horrors of the same war, however lofty be the principles inscribed on their moral flag.