Neutrality in Europe after 2022

Neutral expectations: peace and love Neutral in reality: make the country a fort or be steam roll

As a Swiss person I have to correct the statement about serving a minimum of 5 years: we only have mandatory basic training (18 weeks) + yearly repetition courses (3 weeks each) until you have served your mandatory 240 days

That tangent about Yugoslavia was magic. I had always assumed the country collapsed because Tito died. I learned something new today.

As a swede and political scientist, I just want to say that Swedish neutrality is vastly overstated. During WW2 we sent most of our weapons to Finland, 10K volunteer soldiers and threatened the USSR with war after the peace treaty with Finland was too harsh. During the cold war we had escape plan for our leaders to flee to the UK and USA, we spied on the USSR for NATO and even built our airfields to fit NATO planes. We still made deals with the USA even as Palme was protesting the Vietnam War. And Russia knew all of this. And we still spoke our minds on the international stages, and pissing of western countries. And this did not stop after we joined the EU, and I don’t think it will after Sweden becomes an official part of NATO.

To be fair about Costa Rica’s lack of a military, America basically guarantees the protection of them, Panama, and other small islands since democratic backyard

One thing's for certain after the invasion of Ukraine: No nation with nuclear weapons is ever going to give them up. Nuclear weaponry, whether or not it was a deterrent before, certainly appears like one now.

“What makes a man turn neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or were you just born with heart full of neutrality?” -Zapp Brannigan

I am surprised Kraut, you didn’t highlight Turkey’s attempts to strong arm Finland and Sweden out of their sympathies to towards the Kurds by single handedly delaying their ascension to NATO. Turkey in this case extracted a price from both in their abandoning neutrality. Just thought I’d drop this here as an additional point, great video as always!

11:50 as a Casual EU4 player, I am guilty of enforcing nuetrality upon my victim states to make conquest easier. The fact a historical example exists is fascinating and horrifying.

"Czechoslovakia was allied to Britain" No it wasn't. Sorry Kraut, rookie error. Czechoslovakia was allied to France and France was allied to Britain. There was no direct Anglo-Czech agreement, which was the point of the Munich Agreement. Britain was terrified of getting dragged into a German-Czech war that it had nothing to do with by it's French ally, as getting pulled into a war by your allies had been a repeating feature of World War 1. The rest of your point is fine though.

Remember, you CAN be neutral, uninvolved, part of an alliance, a giant mooch without your own army, AND important in diplomacy! Regards from Iceland!😆

As a Swiss, I have to point out, that there is only 300 days of mandatory military service and not 5 years. After a base camp of 4 months, you have to serve the rest in small parts of 3 weeks every year, maybe that's where the confusion came from.

As a Vietnamese, it's very interesting to see how neutrality in Europe has progress to adapt with different historical events. Vietnam itself now is also trying to be neutral, being right under China while having the US as a strategic deterrence in the South China Sea. I hope you'll do an official video on us soon!

“Why is Hungary a NATO member?” Good question, I mean even Poland has started since the war to fell out with Hungary and in Lithuania we refer to Obran literally as “Prostitute for gas”

ireland is extremely lucky in its location, historically less so but currently. A actual threat or invasion to ireland is a massive strategic weakness for the UK and to a degree france. Allowing a hostile force so close to ones borders and destablise the region would simply not be allowed. So while ireland is neutral, it has no nearby hostiles and those neighbours would prevent hostile actions so close to themselves

There's a good reason most Americans think that neutrality means a lack of an arms industry- Ireland is the only one of the countries you mentioned where English is the official language and we obviously have much deeper ties with them

I love how Perun whent from small gaming channel to THE one channel that everyone point out if you want to start to undertand something as complex as defense economics

Love how Perun just burst onto the scene after the Ukraine war and is now like one of the most respected military analysts on YT now.

A minor correction about Finland... The Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance of 1948 didn't actually state that Finland would need to join the USSR in war. It stated that Finland would be required to defend itself should it be attacked or should its territory be used to attack the USSR - which is actually required if Finland was a neutral state in any case. And that if required Finland would be allowed to enter consultations to gain aid from the USSR but it wasn't something that would happen automatically. Nor would it trigger if the USSR, but not Finland, was attacked. It also required Finland to not ally itself with the West and acknowledged Finnish neutrality. And the military purchases were a Finnish solution to show neutrality. The goal was to spend roughly 1/3 on the western equipment, 1/3 on the eastern equipment, and 1/3 on either domestic or neutral. However as these were mostly done by value, and the Western stuff cost a lot more, it meant that Eastern stuff would be far more visible (but often retrofitted with Western equipment). But it also lead to interesting designs like the Finnish gunboats, which had Finnish-made hulls, West German engines, Western radar and electronic gear, a Swedish main gun, Soviet AA guns, and Soviet anti-submarine weaponry.

really really great video Kraut!!! one of my aunts on my mom’s side of the family married a swiss man and moved to switzerland in the 80s. last summer, i finally met up with my swiss family after only seeing them once as a kid. it was fascinating talking to one of my swiss cousins about the ramifications of the ukrainian war. everybody i talked to felt the significance of switzerland condemning russia for the ukrainian invasion. everybody i talked to supported switzerland’s condemnation of the war but were still concerned about how the war and the end of swiss neutrality might influence the country in the long run. my mom and i were also staying at the house of my aunt’s friend and she just so happened to be hosting a ukrainian refugee woman. meeting her was very moving.