Swiss Arms Control Policy: From Abstention to Participation

Abstract

In the area of arms control and disarmament, Swiss policy has undergone a significant shift since the Second World War. In the first few years after the war, the issue did not feature on the Swiss foreign policy agenda. The advent of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in the 1960s, however, triggered a lengthy discussion. It challenged Switzerland to weigh a number of different and conflicting interests — mainly military and economic — and to come to a decision for or against the treaty. In contrast, agreements like the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and the Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) were signed and ratified quickly and without much controversy and debate. Those treaties did not entail practical obligations for the country. It must also be added that as a non-member of the United Nations (UN) and the Geneva Conference on Disarmament (CD),¹ Switzerland’s participation in the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE, later OSCE) was its only opportunity during the Cold War to engage in multinational arms control negotiations as an equal partner.