After years of being detained in an Iranian prison, Princeton graduate student Dr. Xiyue Wang, imprisoned since 2016, was finally going home to his wife and young child. When Dr. Wang prepared to board his plane home I handed him an American flag on behalf of the President of the United States and welcomed him back to freedom-- he broke down in my arms and wept.
It is my most emotional and memorable experience as US Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. For months I had heard examples from my embassy staff in Berne about the compassion and professionalism of the Swiss Ambassador and his diplomatic colleagues in Tehran who were the face of the US protecting power in Iran. Dr. Wang himself told me that if it were not for the Swiss and their willingness to bring him books, western food, and hope for freedom, he could never have endured. These stories were repeated by others before and after Dr. Wang and they cannot be forgotten.
After a long history of success, once again the Swiss good offices proved invaluable. In recent weeks as I read the foreign policy journals and listen to the media who have never spent a day in Switzerland, I think it is important to recount some other important historic events and give clarity to those outside Switzerland who question Swiss neutrality and seek to redefine it.
A Switzerland poised to offer good offices as a neutral party while determined to negotiate for peace and freedom is a contribution to the international order that should be properly and historically understood and respected.
So, why, you might ask is this story relevant? Why is that rainy day on a Zurich tarmac worth remembering? As some of the leading and loudest voices in international media, economics, banking and politics debate whether Switzerland should safeguard its neutrality, it helps to get perspective.
The college history version of historical precedence for Swiss neutrality is well known....the 1515 battle of Marignano where 10,000 Swiss lost their lives, thereby ending the Swiss Confederacies expansion attempts into Italy. Ultimately nestled between France, Austria and Prussia the Swiss concluded that wisdom would dictate remaining neutral in European conflict. Subsequently the 1815 Congress of Vienna, The Treaty of Paris, and the Hague Convention of 1907 all helped to create the neutrality Switzerland safeguards today.
Swiss President, Ignazio Cassis in a 2022 speech recently helped articulate a helpful modern condensed version of Swiss neutrality, "no participation in wars; international cooperation but no membership in any military alliance; no provision of troops or weapons to warring parties and no granting of transition rights." Simple guidelines that enable Switzerland, a confederacy of 8.6 million people, to play a role in international negotiations, peace and stability that no other nation is capable of offering. It is an appropriate and fitting role for this economic powerhouse with limited population to offer an increasingly unstable world.
The great statesman Sir Winston Churchill also recognized this in 1944 in a letter he wrote to Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden as he noted, "of all the neutrals, Switzerland has the greatest right to distinction...what does it matter whether she has been able to give us the commercial advantage we desire or has given too many to the Germans...? She has been a democratic state, standing for freedom and self defense...and largely on our side."
History has shown Switzerland provided a safe haven for generations of intellectuals, freedom fighters, authors, reformers and others who fled tyranny looking for political refuge among a people who respected freedom of thought and expression. This is a growing need in a world where such democratic values are increasingly in jeopardy.
During this debate about Switzerland's future role in world affairs, it is incumbent upon the community of nations to look back and remember the important roles Switzerland has played in helping arrange the major diplomatic agreements and conversations that have prevented wars, rebuilt nations and presented Swiss fundamental peace policy with global trade partnerships and good offices.
Geneva has, over the past forty years, been the location of choice for US/Russian diplomatic meetings. The most memorable was in 1985 between President Ronald Reagan and President Mikail Gorbachev- often alluded to as a seminal moment in the end of the cold war. Another more recent Geneva summit between President Biden and President Putin in 2021 offered a critical bilateral opportunity for diplomacy at a time when conversation was needed.
Swiss good offices and protecting powers have played an integral role in US foreign policy and it is the very trust between bilateral and multilateral parties that enables Switzerland to provide this role that no other nation can.
As the Ukrainian war progresses and China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and others begin unprecedented talks and multilateral agreements, there is no more important time for Switzerland to stay ist course and keep her neutrality safeguarded from entanglements. There will be a time, in the hopefully not too distant future, when Switzerland will serve as a fair and honest broker for diplomatic discussions that will keep the world safe and at peace.
There will come a time when Ukraine will need rebuilding and as we have seen the Swiss were the first to convene such a international discussion with the Lugano Summit. There will come a time when the world will step back from the precipice of another World War to find a path to pursue international solutions for democracy and freedom. And when this time comes, a truly neutral Switzerland can serve a purpose that no other nation can. Edmund Burke once said, "People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors." One can only hope that the world of nations will remember and respect the long and valuable Swiss tradition of neutrality that has helped contribute to freedom and democracy worldwide. Now more than ever, this is Switzerland's opportunity to offer the world a path to a peaceful and prosperous world.
Edward T. McMullen Jr.