ABSTRACT
In order to achieve a clearer understanding of Austria’s foreign policy record from 1955 to 1995, this chapter will adopt the main hypothesis of a recent essay by Gerhard Botz and Alfred Müller on Austria’s development after 1945. Austria’s powerless and essentially reactive foreign policy of the 1920s and the 1930s was, to a significant extent, the consequence of a very difficult international environment, referred to in the words of a contemporary foreign policy notable as ‘a situation in which the world worked against Austria’. There are many examples of an active foreign policy and of skilful negotiating tactics on the part of the Austrian government in the difficult political constellation after the end of the Second World War. Successful ‘specialisation in cooperation on the European scene’ and the active role Vienna played as an international meeting place made the status of the neutral small state internationally more attractive.
