The major European neutrals - Austria, Finland, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland - are heirs to a venerable and adaptable tradition. In the turmoil of the past two centuries, many neutral states have disappeared, others have joined alliance systems, and those that have remained or become neutral have often seen themselves as misunderstood, even as their international positions have solidified. Neutrality is no longer an easily defined, static legal concept, but an evolving political practice. Between the Blocs, published in 1990, features many of the pre-eminent scholars and political figures who have crafted the shape and meaning of the modern policy of neutrality and nonalignment in contemporary Europe. With its wide-ranging and non-ideological analysis of the phenomenon of Europe's neutral analysis of the phenomenon of Europe's natural and non-aligned states, Between the Blocs promises to become a modern classic in the field.
