ABSTRACT
The essence of neutrality is the avoidance of war, namely, the avoidance of involvement in the wars of others. But despite its deceptively simple definition, neutrality is not a homogeneous concept. It has changed meanings over the centuries, reflecting the concerns of states adopting it as their foreign policy and those desiring to challenge its validity. Neutrality has a long history going back as far as the sixth century BC when Milesians abstained from supporting either Ionian Greece or Persia. 2 During the Middle Ages, it was common practice for warring parties to refrain from sinking ships of countries not involved in the conflict. 3 In the fifteenth century, neutrality became a vaguely defined quasi-legal term referring to nations that opted out of a particular war. Neutrals at that time could profess partiality to one side or another and could supply it with all manner of materials, including military goods. 4 Neither contraband regulation nor impartiality were widely observed, although neutral ships were protected from privateering. 5 Napoleon's disregard for the proclaimed non-belligerency of several European countries, including the Netherlands, entailed the death of old-style neutrality, and the birth of neutrality based on international law. 6 Influenced by the American Act of 1794, territorial integrity and impartiality became the cornerstones of neutrality in the 1800s. 7 International conventions, such as those formulated at the Paris Conference of 1856, at Geneva in 1864, in The Hague in 1899 and 1907, and at the London Conference in 1909, aimed to regulate the laws of warfare and the rights and obligations of neutrals in time of conflict and peace. They provided the basis for neutrality in the first half of the twentieth century.
