ABSTRACT
Michael Gehler gives lengthy attention to the descriptions of the impact such activities had on Austria's domestic politics. He does so to the extent that in some places the book becomes as much a work on domestic politics as it is on foreign policy. In describing Austria's postwar foreign policy, Gehler is, thus, justified in focusing on the decisions and the decision makers in this small group of foreign policy mandarins: a few select politicians and a few select diplomats. For all nations, even the most powerful ones, a foreign policy agenda is largely set by external circumstances, by history or geography, by global trends, and by the actions of other agents in the international scene. The "Waldheim Affair" became a symbol and marker for this turn of the tide from the "primacy of foreign policy" towards the "primacy of internal politicking.".
