Should We Delegate Our Sovereignty to the Permanent Members of the Security Council? No

Switzerland’s September 27 vote is not about whether the country will remain neutral. It is about whether Switzerland will continue deciding for itself how neutrality and foreign policy should be applied, or hand that choice to the five permanent members of the Security Council, writes National Councillor Damien Cottier.

Neutrality has been anchored in the Swiss Constitution since 1848 and recognised in international law since 1815. For two centuries, Cottier argues, it has served a clear purpose: keeping Switzerland out of wars and protecting its independence.

But neutrality, he says, has always been a tool for Swiss security, not an end in itself. It should not become a sacred principle before which the country bows. In his view, the initiative risks doing precisely that by turning neutrality into a rigid doctrine.

Cottier argues that Switzerland should preserve what has proved useful without allowing it to become inflexible and ineffective. The central issue, as he presents it, is sovereignty: whether Swiss institutions will continue to determine the country’s position themselves, rather than allowing the permanent members of the Security Council to shape that choice.