ABSTRACT
Neutrality is a strange thing. It has been dismissed as either unrealistic or immoral—or both. But in spite of its long history of being despised, it still is alive and still considered as a foreign policy option. European long-term neutral nations, past and present, are successful small states. Trade and shipping under neutral flags were especially important in the eighteenth century, when many maritime states started to apply a long-term neutral strategy. The dilemmas of neutrality policy in the twentieth century have made people ignorant of neutrality’s role in shaping the modern world. The concept of neutrality in war thus also presumes a definition of “war” in a consistent way. War is understood as an armed conflict between two sovereign polities. The sovereignty is founded on a general acknowledgement by the international community that the belligerent states are sovereign states.
