ABSTRACT
Politically binding confidence- and security-building measures with far-reaching provisions had replaced voluntary measures. Three factors become evident as the main prerequisites of a credible neutrality: the will to stay out of wars; a favorable geostrategic situation, based not least on a terrain proving difficult for land operations; and reliable defense forces, capable of protecting not only one's own territory but indirectly also the neighbors by providing flank security. Neutral countries must define their security interests along their own guidelines, as all other states do; this task may not be transferred to the alliances. Security includes the dimension of human rights and self-determination of peoples. The transition from the talks of the twenty-three to the framework of all the thirty-five states that participate in the process of the conference on security and cooperation in Europe will be particularly difficult. Armed neutrality combined with international solidarity is everything but an anachronism.
