Neutral countries are those states that choose not to participate in armed conflicts, neither directly nor indirectly, avoiding to provide military or logistical support to one of the parties in war and protecting their territory from external intrusions. During European history, many attempted this path, but with poor results: Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway were invaded during the world wars, while Switzerland, Spain, Portugal and Sweden had to negotiate compromises to maintain a semblance of sovereignty. Today Switzerland remains the best known model of neutrality, even if respect for western sanctions towards Russia has questioned the absoluteness of this position. Italy, on the other hand, cannot aspire to such a neutrality: its strategic position in the Mediterranean and the interest of the great powers for its territory make it impossible for a policy of isolation or total non -alignment, making neutrality an impossible option in practice.
The concept of neutrality and its history
Although already in the nineteenth century it was discussed if small countries could avoid conflicts between the great European powers, still today there is no unique and recognized definition of neutrality. However, most of the international community follows the definition of the 1907 age agreement, namely that:
“Neutral states cannot participate in wars neither directly nor indirectly. They cannot support or militarily favor the parties in conflict, nor make their territories accessible to them, supply them with armaments or finance credits, or restrict the export of armaments on a private basis in the direction of a single part in question. The neutral states also have the obligation to defend themselves militarily against any violations of their neutrality “.
Therefore the concept of neutrality, in order to make sense, must necessarily be traced back to European political and military history, because it provides for a military alignment, that is, the choice of a country not to adhere to any military alliance. This concept found a certain popularity between the European states at the beginning of the twentieth century, but the events of the first and the Second World War contributed to putting it in crisis, while never making it disappear completely. During those two conflicts, in fact, some countries that had declared themselves previously “neutral” (Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Albania, Greece) were attacked by one or larger powers participating in the conflict, while others (Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden) have had to accept the painful compromises from time to time, They undermined full sovereignty.
What are the neutral countries today
After the Second World War, neutral countries in Europe and in the world decreased, and the concept of neutrality was transformed into the most flexible one of non -alignment. This idea was proposed for the first time by Josip Broz Tito’s Yugoslavia after the 1948 breakage with the USSR. In Europe it remained limited to Yugoslavia, but obtained a great sequel among the third world countries during decolonization, giving rise to the movement of non -aligned countries.
Nowadays, the only country that continues to reflect in collective feeling the classic ideal of neutrality in Europe and in the whole world is Switzerland, which continues to refuse adhesion to any military alliance. However, after the start of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia (February 24, 2022), the Swiss Confederation also aligned with the regime of sanctions that the West approved against Moscow. Even if this type of support has not resulted in the military field, it is legitimate to wonder if, opening up openly with the western chancelleries, Bern does not have de facto inhabitants of the principle of neutrality that for over two centuries animates the spirit of its international relations.
Can Italy be a neutral country?
Since Italy became a modern national state, it has never happened that any government has taken the opportunity to declare the neutrality of our peninsula. In this case, the problem is not so much in collective feeling as in an objective observation of Italy’s geopolitical location. As has been observed several times in different contexts, so that a country can truly pursue a neutrality policy is not enough that it “declares itself neutral” but it is at the same time necessary that the other great actors of international politics reach the tacit agreement to “allow him to be neutral” and therefore substantially to “leave him in peace and not attack his security and independence”.
The manual case in this sense is that of the Kingdom of Belgium, which became an independent and internationally recognized state on April 19, 1839, after nine years of low intensity war with the Netherlands, with the London Treaty. Based on the clauses of that treaty, the great European powers of the period (Austria, France, Prussia, Russia and the United Kingdom) were collectively guaranteed not only of the independence of Belgium from the Netherlands but also of its neutrality in the field of international relations and territorial integrity towards any external aggression. This balance, which seemed ideal on paper, collapsed in the twentieth century, when Germany voted twice in twenty -five years the independence and neutrality of Belgium. The reason was clear: the position of Belgium, a real strategic corridor to attack France, was too precious to be ignored.
In the same way, given the strategic position that the Italian peninsula has always occupied in the center of the Mediterranean, it is easy to understand why in the course of the millennia it always has (with the only exception of the interlude represented by the maximum splendor of the Roman Empire) stimulated the expansionist appetites of external forces with the most disparate origins. In today’s world, characterized by a new rush to the top to redesign international balances it is easy to understand that no great power among those that are now competing for the primacy will ever want to allow Italy to be a free and neutral country.
