Austria in Search of its Place in a Changing World: From Between the Blocs to Full Western Integration?

The political sea change of 1989–1891 – the collapse of the communist regimes in the crumbling Soviet bloc and the resulting end of the East–West conflict – entailed far-reaching consequences for all European states. As regards post-1955 Austria, it was a permanently neutral state located in the centre of Europe, but firmly Western with regard to its political and economic system. Neutrality also did not prevent the countries concerned from developing rather intensive economic relations with their main partners in Western Europe. A two-tier approach evidently provided a solution that was satisfactory in economic terms and at the same time compatible with the obligations resulting from the international law of neutrality. Austria’s Western orientation at the ideological, political and economic levels did not prevent it from pursuing an active neutrality policy for which the term ‘bridge-building’ was often used.