Swiss choose to join U.N.

Associated Press

GENEVA — Swiss voters approved joining the United Nations on Sunday, finding the prospect of a greater role in today’s interlinked world more compelling than fears that it would threaten the nation’s centuries-old tradition of neutrality.

The country, which has been formally neutral for almost 200 years, will become the United Nations’ 190th member. Only the Vatican remains outside the world body.

During the Cold War, Switzerland feared U.N. membership would sweep it into the battles between East and West. More recently, opponents have feared having to submit to the political dictates of the Security Council.

The Swiss have practiced forms of neutrality on and off since the 13th century, but the principle was laid down formally in the 1815 Treaty of Paris that ended the Napoleonic Wars. In that pact, European powers guaranteed the "perpetual neutrality" of Switzerland.

The Swiss themselves made it part of their 1848 constitution. Treating both sides in a war evenhandedly has remained a guiding principle since, although recent historical reviews have said Switzerland went too far in helping the Germans in World War II.

The popular vote gave the bid for U.N. membership a comfortable 55-45 percent approval, but the crucial second hurdle — approval by at least half the country’s cantons, or states — received a much narrower 12-11 result.

Small mountain cantons, most of them German-speaking, voted heavily against the United Nations. But the French-speaking cantons of the west and key German-speaking cantons of central Switzerland prevailed with their yes vote.

It was a sharp reversal of a similar Swiss vote in 1986, when 75 percent rejected U.N. membership, backing opponents who said East-West polarization would compromise Swiss neutrality.