Against the Party of War, a Peace Initiative

In a Europe where everyone is being pushed to choose a side, Switzerland should retain the option of choosing peace, Jean-Luc Addor argues. The Swiss National Council member presents neutrality as a third path at a time when Europe is rearming and political rhetoric is hardening.

For more than two centuries, neutrality has stood among the pillars of Switzerland’s foreign policy. It allowed the country to build an active diplomatic role, offer its good offices, represent foreign interests and host negotiations. That role, Addor says, depended on Switzerland being seen as predictable and credible.

He argues that this instrument is now losing its strength. Switzerland, in his view, is aligning itself ever more closely with the European Union and NATO, and therefore with the United States. Military cooperation with what he calls these belligerent alliances is expanding, while sanctions against Russia have placed Switzerland in what he describes as the dangerous role of a belligerent in a war that is not its own.

The argument is framed as a challenge to the logic of blocs. Rather than choosing a camp, Addor says Switzerland should protect the neutrality that has supported its security and enabled it to act as a diplomatic intermediary. The opinion piece calls for a peace-oriented foreign policy independent of the pressure to align with rival power groupings.