Its reputation as a safe haven for the persecuted save its dismal record with Jewish refugees during World War II is so well known that at this time last year, an Ethiopian pilot hijacked his own Rome-bound flight and landed instead in Geneva, where he requested asylum to escape persecution in his home country.
While he faces up to 20 years in prison for the hijacking, the Swiss have refused Ethiopian demands for his extradition. Contact us at letters time. History politics Switzerland Takes a Side for Neutrality.
More from this author. Other languages: 9 Deutsch de Wie neutral ist die Schweiz wirklich? More More. The day Switzerland became neutral This content was published on Mar 20, Mar 20, The neutrality so strongly associated with modern Switzerland originated in a congress years ago, when the Great Powers met in Vienna.
Press freedom becomes a test case for Swiss foreign policy This content was published on Sep 11, Sep 11, As Switzerland and other countries back multilateral efforts to bolster a free press, NGOs are watching to see if concrete actions will follow. Armed neutrality This content was published on Nov 29, Nov 29, Switzerland and neutrality are synonymous but that does not mean the Swiss have no military might.
Too small to succeed? Tags: Business Politics Environment Law and order. Share this story. Join the conversation! I rode city buses with exuberant gaggles of young conscripts in Chur, and I got to watch a graduating class pass the flag to incoming cadets in a gallant ceremony in a Zurich square.
Anyone can tour Parliament in Bern for insight into domestic politics ; the international research centre CERN , which is half in Switzerland and half in France to see how the policy has led to advances in science ; and the United Nations offices in Geneva. Interestingly, Switzerland only became of a member of the UN in And even more interestingly, it is still not a member of the European Union.
If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. Why Switzerland never takes sides. Share using Email. By Billie Cohen 21st July That last one is clearly a nod to times past. After these incidents, the military curbed this and implemented a new policy stating that any conscript wishing to keep their gun after service must buy it and apply for a permit.
As part of this new policy, the Swiss military also no longer provides ammunition with the guns, instead keeping it in secure locations that citizens must get to in the event of an emergency.
Speaking of emergencies, generally speaking, Switzerland is prepared for near any global catastrophe from nuclear fallout to a surprise invasion from an enemy force thanks to a defensive plan it has been implementing since , but which was doubled-down upon during WW2 and later during the Cold War. The full scale of the fortifications is a closely guarded secret, but some of them are kept in plain view as part of a comprehensive campaign of deterrence.
Initially the National Redoubt consisted of tunnels bored into the many mountains of Switzerland in key strategic positions for retreating troops and citizens to take shelter in, but over the years these have evolved to encompass a host of ingenious defensive and offensive structures. As for more specifically how they kept themselves out of the world wars, during WW1, the Swiss military, under freshly appointed General Ulrich Wille, mobilised well over , Swiss soldiers and deployed them across its major entry points to deter any outside forces from considering waging war on the country.
In fact, in the final year of the war, the Swiss military had shrunk its numbers to just 12, Nothing further was required to keep the Swiss out of WW1. WW2 was a different beast altogether with Switzerland not banking on Hitler respecting their long-held neutral stance in European conflicts. Thus, newly appointed Swiss General Henri Guisan was given the unenviable task of trying to figure out a way to defend the small country from their neighbors, Hitler and his allies, despite that said powers drastically outmatched the Swiss army in a variety of ways.
On top of that, they also began secret negotiations with France to join forces against Germany, should Germany attack Switzerland a risky move that was discovered by the Germans after France fell to them. So the plan was essentially to perpetually defend and retreat to some fortified position over and over again, ultimately conceding the less defensible populated areas of the country once the government and citizens had managed a retreat into secret fortified positions in the Alps.
More controversially, Switzerland continued to trade with Nazi Germany during the war in order to further de-incentivise Hitler from invading.
Thus, Switzerland was largely ignored by both Allies and the Axis throughout WW2, despite its amazingly well placed location right next to Germany, Italy, France, and Austria. Switzerland stepped up their level of defence during the Cold War, again mostly out of a desire to deter any potential invaders.
In many cases, the engineers who designed the bridges were required to come up with the most efficient way, using explosives, to ensure the complete destruction of those same bridges. Once the destruction plan was developed, hidden explosives were installed at the appropriate locations in the bridges. On top of that, the military also lined hundreds of mountains flanking major roads with explosives to create artificial rockslides.
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