1 Walter Feichtinger, “Österreich im sicherheitspolitischen Wandel – von der Landesverteidigung zur solidarischen Friedenssicherung,” in Military Power Revue der Schweizer Armee 3 (2007), supplement to the Allgemeine Schweizerische Militärzeitschrift 12 (2007) and Schweizer Soldat 12 (2007): 18-27. For the background and the period up to 1989, see Andrew Earl Harrod, “Felix Austria? Cold War Security Policy between NATO, Neutrality, and the Warsaw Pact, 1945-1989,” Dissertation, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 2007; Manfried Rauchensteiner, ed., Zwischen den Blöcken: NATO, Warschauer Pakt und Österreich (Vienna: Böhlau, 2010); Erwin A. Schmidl, “Österreichs Sicherheitspolitik und das Bundesheer 1918 bis 2008: ein Überblick,” in Österreich: 90 Jahre Republik: Beitragsband der Ausstellung im Parlament, ed. Stefan Karner and Lorenz Mikoletzky (Innsbruck: Studien Verlag, 2008), 481-95; and Erwin A. Schmidl, “The Warsaw Pact and Austria: Threats and Threat Perceptions,” in “Peaceful Coexistence” or “Iron Curtain”?: Austria, Neutrality, and Eastern Europe in the Cold War and Détente, 1955-1989, ed. Arnold Suppan and Wolfgang Mueller (Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2009), 203-17. As the author is a civil servant in the Austrian Ministry of Defense, the usual disclaimer has to be made that this article reflects only his personal views and in no way seeks to transport any official standpoint on the part of the Austrian government.

2 An interesting comparative workshop about the neutral countries Austria, Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland in the Cold War was organized by Thomas C. Fischer and Jussi Hanhimäki in Geneva in October 2010; the resulting book will be out soon. For Austrian foreign policy in general, the reader is referred to the standard opus magnum by Michael Gehler, Österreichs Außenpolitik der Zweiten Republik: Von der alliierten Besatzung bis zum Europa des 21. Jahrhunderts (Innsbruck: Studien Verlag, 2005).

3 The Austrian Constitution goes back to the text adopted in 1920 and amended in 1929; it was re-adopted in 1945 following the separation from the Third Reich, to which Austria had belonged since the Anschluss (annexation) of March 1938. Likewise, the main elements of the Army Law adopted in 1955 were based on the earlier Army Law of 1920. See Felix Schneider, “Der Weg zum österreichischen Wehrgesetz von 1955,” in B-Gendarmerie, Waffenlager und Nachrichtendienste: Der militärische Weg zum Staatsvertrag, ed. Walter Blasi, Erwin A. Schmidl and Felix Schneider (Vienna: Böhlau, 2005), 171-90.

4 A referendum held on 20 January 2013 confirmed the system of obligatory conscription (as well as the parallel alternative community service in a civilian organization) by a 60:40 majority.

5 The protocol of the meeting of the Defense Committee on February 25, 1958 was published by Manfried Rauchensteiner, ed., Das Bundesheer der Zweiten Republik: Eine Dokumentation (Vienna: Bundesverlag, 1980), Document no. 26, 41-42.

6 Erwin A. Schmidl, Blaue Helme, Rotes Kreuz: Das österreichische UN-Sanitätskontingent im Kongo, 1960 bis 1963 (Innsbruck: Studien Verlag, 2010); Christian Ségur-Cabanac and Wolfgang Etschmann, eds., 50 Jahre Auslandseinsätze des Österreichischen Bundesheeres (Vienna: BMLVS, 2010).

7 See the study by Johanna Rainio-Niemi, “Small State Cultures of Consensus: State Traditions and Consensus-Seeking in the Neo-Corporatist and Neutrality Policies in Post-45 Austria and Finland,” Dissertation, University of Helsinki, 2008.

8 Landesverteidigungsplan (Vienna: Bundeskanzleramt, 1985).

9 Emil Spannocchi, Verteidigung ohne Selbstzerstörung (Vienna: Hanser, 1976). See also Wolfgang Wildberger, Emil Spannocchi: Engagiert und Eloquent (Graz: Vehling, 2006).

10 In 1971, obligatory national service was shortened from nine to six months, with an additional service of two months for refresher call-ups and exercises. However, many young men chose to serve in the Readiness Force for a total of eight months, thus avoiding later call-ups. At the same time, conscientious objectors were allowed not to serve in the military (in non-combatant functions, as had been the case before), but to choose an “alternative service” (in a hospital, with the Red Cross, etc.). This further depleted the number of recruits available to build up sizeable reserves. Also, lacking budgetary means delayed the acquisition of necessary equipment.

11 This and the following notes about army structure reforms follow the excellent study by Friedrich Hessel, Strukturentwicklung des Bundesheeres von der „ Wende “1989/90 bis zum Jahr 2003 (Vienna: BMLV/LVAk, 2004). For a critical view, see also Walter Mayer, “Zur Entwicklung der Gliederung des Bundesheeres,” <http://www.bmlv.gv.at/facts/geschichte/pdfs/entwicklung_mayer.pdf> (15 Nov. 2010).

12 A good account of these developments is the article by ret. General Hannes Philipp (Army Commander in 1986-91), “Der Operationsfall ‘A’: Gesamtbedrohung im Zeichen der Raumverteidigung, 1973-1991,” in Zwischen den Blöcken, ed. Rauchensteiner, 325-86.

13 The events in Yugoslavia are not dealt with in any detail here because they form the topic of another article in this book.

14 I am grateful to several high-ranking officers, some of them already deceased, for granting me interviews over the years that have helped me to better understand what happened “behind the scenes.” Some of them have asked not to be named, however.

15 Erich Reiter, Neutralität oder NATO: Die sicherheitspolitischen Konsequenzen aus der europäischen Aufgabe Österreichs (Graz: Styria, 1996).

16 Gunther Hauser, Österreich – dauernd neutral? (Vienna: Braumüller, 2002).

17 Traditionally, the Social Democrats (Sozialistische, later Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, or SPÖ) and the Christian Socials (the Austrian People’s Party or Österreichische Volkspartei, ÖVP) were the two strongest parties. Over the years, the right-wing and increasingly populist Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) attracted up to one quarter of the electorate, but it later split into two parties, the Freedom Party and the slightly more liberal Union for the Future of Austria (Bündnis Zukunft Austria, BZÖ). Since the 1980s, the Green Party has also been represented in Parliament.

18 This is the current figure according to the official homepage of the Austrian Armed Forces: <http://www.bmlv.gv.at/karriere/frauen/images/pdf/verwendung_weibl_soldaten.pdf> (14 Nov. 2010). The total is misleading; however, as it includes 73 professional athletes, who are soldiers for formal reasons only.

19 According to a study published by the Technical University in Vienna in mid-2010, one fifth of female soldiers have suffered from workplace bullying, otherwise known as mobbing. Out of 838 women who joined the army after 1998, more than half have already quit the job. See <http://www.tt.com/csp/cms/sites/tt/%C3%9Cberblick/Politik/PolitikContainer/949986-8/soldatinnen-leiden-unter-mobbing-im-bundesheer.csp> (14 Nov. 2010).

20 These figures themselves point to a compromise, as SPÖ negotiators had aimed at a final figure fewer than 100,000, whilst the ÖVP wanted more than 100,000. Hessel, Strukturentwicklung, 24.

21 See the official description of the Security and Defense Doctrine on the homepage of the Austrian Ministry of European and International Affairs <http://www.bmeia.gv.at/aussenministerium/oesterreich/staat-und-politik/sicherheitsdoktrin.html> (15. Nov. 2010), and the article by Brigadier General E. Gustav Gustenau (who was actively involved in the preparation of the doctrine), “Ein Paradigmenwechsel in der österreichischen Außen-und Sicherheitspolitik? Zur Ausarbeitung einer neuen Sicherheits-und Verteidigungsdoktrin”, <http://www.bmlv.gv.at/pdf_pool/publikationen/03_jb01_48_gus.pdf>.

22 These units are known as Kaderpräsenzeinheiten (KPE), whereas the traditional ad-hoc formations are now labeled Formierte Einheiten (FORMEIN). KPE and FORMEIN are the two elements of KIOP (Kräfte für Internationale Operationen or “forces for international operations”).

23 These aims were formulated in the 2004 White Paper: Weißbuch 2004: Analyse – Bilanz – Perspektiven (Vienna: BMLV, 2005), which is accessible via the internet:<http://www.bmlv.gv.at/cms/artikel.php?ID=2425>.

24 In this context, the whole scope of the so-called “Petersberg missions” is sometimes mentioned. This is actually a misnomer, as the Petersberg Declaration (made by the foreign ministers of the Western European Union at the Petersberg guest house of the German government near Bonn) of 1992 is not really a clear definition, but rather a vague listing of military tasks. However, the wording of this declaration as well as the term “Petersberg tasks” has become a standard formula in European Union security parlance.

25 Before him, Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch was OHR in 1999-2002.

26 Ségur-Cabanac and Etschmann, 50 Jahre Auslandseinsätze.

27 For SHIRBRIG, see <http://www.shirbrig.dk/html/plaque_0.htm> (14. Nov. 2010) for CENCOOP, see <http://www.cencoop.at/history/index_history.htm> (14 Nov. 2010).

28 In the autumn 2010 issue of Der Offizier: Die Zeitschrift der Österreichischen Offiziersgesellschaft, the president of the Austrian Officers’Organization (the leading organization of reserve officers) could still praise the defense minister for his “ einhellige Abfuhr” to any ideas of abolishing national service (4), and in his article “Wehrpflicht bestätigt! War’s das schon?,” Udo Ladinig could cite, “dass verstärkt ab Mitte Juni heurigen Jahres von maßgeblichen Politikern und von der Führungsspitze unseres Heeres klare Bekenntnisse zur Wehrpflicht abgegeben wurden” (6-7).

29 On July 3, 2010, he told the Tiroler Tageszeitung: “Für mich ist die Wehrpflicht in Stein gemeißelt. Mit mir als Verteidigungsminister wird es kein Ende der Wehrpflicht geben.” See <http://www.tt.com/csp/cms/sites/tt/%C3%9Cberblick/Politik/938884-6/f%C3%BCr-mich-ist-die-wehrpflicht-in-stein-gemei%C3%9Felt.csp> (14 Nov. 2010).

30 Wiener Zeitung, 31 July 2010 <http://www.wienerzeitung.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=4097&amp;Alias=wzo&amp;cob=509944> (14 Nov. 2010).

31 Unlike future commissioned officers, who usually join the army with the clear intention of making their career there, the majority of future non-commissioned officers is recruited during their national service period.

32 For similar reasons, the Swiss defense minister is also responsible for sports affairs.