Apart from Michael Gehler's comprehensive 2005 analysis, little scholarly attention has been devoted to the topic of Austria's foreign policy, at least as far as accessible monographs are concerned. It is therefore all the more to be welcomed that with the work under review two of Austria's former top diplomats not only propose to fill that gap with a concise survey of the genesis and development of Austria's foreign policy from 1945 to today but to do so in an “easily comprehensible manner” (p. 5). Franz Cede headed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs International Law Office from 1993 to 1999, at a time when many of the articles of Austria's State Treaty were becoming increasingly obsolete after the end of the Cold War. Before retiring from active service in 2011, Christian Prosl was Austria's ambassador in Washington, having previously served in the same capacity in Berlin.
In this slim volume...