Conclusion

Postwar Austrian diplomacy, operating independently during the Cold War after 1955, had several clear strategic goals. The most important was to set and solidify the operating principles of active neutrality, a key element of postwar national identity. After 1989, some of the previous paradigms relating to Austria’s place in Europe changed. The new challenges brought by the collapse of the bipolar world required that the position of the Danube republic be viewed from a different perspective. The foreign policy pursued by Vienna in the face of integration processes was, on the one hand, the position of a political partner of the Central European countries, and on the other hand, of a small state with a consolidated democracy, which reacted vigorously to international crises, trying to derive the greatest possible benefit from them. Solutions were sought to suit the needs of a neutral state at the heart of the old continent. Its ambitions were of an intermediary in international disputes, who was concerned with intercultural dialogue.