Neutrality and Neutralism in the Global Cold War ─ Between or Within the Blocs?

This book sheds new light on the role of neutral states and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the global Cold War.

The volume places the neutrals and the NAM in the context of the Cold War and demonstrate the links between the East, the West and the so-called 'Third World'. It thus provides readers with an alternative way of exploring the evolution and impact of the Cold War on North-South connections that challenges traditional notions of the post-1945 history of international relations. The various contributions are framed against the backdrop of two broad historical developments: the evolution of the Cold War international system (roughly from the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1990) and the decolonization process in the Southern hemisphere. All contributions proceed from the simple premise that these two historical processes were inexorably linked and affected the policy choices of virtually all countries. In particular, the interconnections between the Cold War and decolonization produced what is widely referred to as the 'Global Cold War'.

Within the context of these two broad developments, several European states adopted (or continued to adhere to in the case of Sweden and Switzerland) a foreign policy of neutrality, while most newly independent countries in Asia and Africa endeavored to avoid direct alignment with either the Soviet Union or the United States. Many of these countries participated in the 1955 Afro-Asian Conference at Bandung and later collaborated to form the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961. Via a series of case studies, the chapters here explore the ensuing internal and (mainly) external policy choices of these nations in the Global Cold War. By juxtaposing the policies of European neutrals and countries of the Non-Aligned Movement, the book offers new perspectives on the evolution of the Cold War.

This book will be of much interest to students of Cold War Studies, international history, foreign policy, security studies and IR in general.

Sandra Bott is a Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and a substitute professor at the EPFL. She is editor ofThe Global Gold Market and the International Monetary System from the Late 19th Century to the Present(2013).

Jussi M. Hanhimaki is Professor of International History at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. His recent books include TheRise and Fall of Detente: American Foreign Policy and the Transformation of the Cold War(2013), An International History of Terrorism (co-editor, Routledge 2012) andTransatlantic Relations Since 1945 (Routledge 2012).

Janick Marina Schaufelbuehl is an assistant professor of the History of International Relations at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Marco Wyss is Senior Lecturer in Politics and Contemporary History at the University of Chichester, and Senior Researcher (FNS) at the University of Lausanne. He is author of Arms Transfers, Neutrality and Britain’s Role in the Cold War (2013), and co-editor of Peacekeeping in Africa: The Evolving Security Architecture (Routledge, 2014).