ABSTRACT
Austrian foreign policy in the Second Republic can be considered and described from several perspectives. In establishing the flexible policy in the difficult political constellation after the war, Austria tried to follow a clear course of action. The Austrian State Treaty and the Declaration of Permanent Neutrality brought to its end a period in which attaining independence had largely dominated the foreign policy agenda. The international conditions for a foreign policy of "active neutrality" deteriorated at the end of the 1970s and in the early 1980s as the Cold War intensified and the political and economic importance of the Third World decreased. Shaping Austria's policy of neutrality called for a considerable amount of diplomatic finesse and political sensitivity. Austrian foreign policy makers decided from the very beginning that they would follow a policy of neutrality that "would take more risks and be more dynamic" than Swiss policy.
