TY - JOUR
T1 - A study in ambivalence
T2 - Austria and European integration 1945-95
AU - Gehler, Michael
AU - Kaiser, Wolfram
PY - 1997/3
Y1 - 1997/3
N2 - Analysing Austria's role in contemporary European history in a comparative perspective, this article explains why Austria's policy towards the process of European integration oscillated between the two poles of neutrality and integration. Perpetual neutrality was initially the price Austria paid in 1955 to safeguard its territorial integrity and regain its sovereignty. However, the European strategy of neutrality and EFTA membership developed crucial secondary functions during the 1960s and 1970s, most importantly to rationalise Austria's non-membership of the EEC and its distance from the Federal Republic of Germany in order to sustain the Austrian nation-building process. It is argued here that Austria's accession to the EU in 1995 marks most of all a shift towards a different political strategy of a small European state to secure its economic interests and enhance its political influence in an ever more interdependent Europe, with considerable domestic repercussions.
AB - Analysing Austria's role in contemporary European history in a comparative perspective, this article explains why Austria's policy towards the process of European integration oscillated between the two poles of neutrality and integration. Perpetual neutrality was initially the price Austria paid in 1955 to safeguard its territorial integrity and regain its sovereignty. However, the European strategy of neutrality and EFTA membership developed crucial secondary functions during the 1960s and 1970s, most importantly to rationalise Austria's non-membership of the EEC and its distance from the Federal Republic of Germany in order to sustain the Austrian nation-building process. It is argued here that Austria's accession to the EU in 1995 marks most of all a shift towards a different political strategy of a small European state to secure its economic interests and enhance its political influence in an ever more interdependent Europe, with considerable domestic repercussions.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=61949087254&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0960777300004057
DO - 10.1017/S0960777300004057
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:61949087254
SN - 0960-7773
VL - 6
SP - 75
EP - 99
JO - Contemporary European History
JF - Contemporary European History
IS - 1
ER -