THE CONCEPT OF NEUTRALITY AS AN INSTRUMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: HISTORICAL RETROSPECTION AND MODERNITY

Abstract

The article is devoted to the comprehension of the phenomenon of "neutrality" of a country. A scientific analysis of the evolution of the content of neutrality in the international legal space is carried out. In international law, there is a concept of states with a "neutral" status. The significance of neutral policy especially increased during the Cold War, when neutral countries became a kind of "buffer" between the Western and Eastern military blocs. They played the role of a link between these blocs, made a significant contribution to the process of resolving differences between the warring parties, and were an integral part of the global political landscape. The Russian aggression has put the question of the change and emergence of a new international system on the agenda, and what will happen next? The world is changing, the world order is changing, the world order that we are used to, which emerged with the end of World War II and was transformed after the defeat of the USSR in the Cold War, no longer exists. There are profound changes in the matrix of the international security system, and these changes have affected states that considered themselves neutral, were neutral at one time or another, for one reason or another. The article analyzes the historical conditions for the formation of the neutral status of the Scandinavian countries – Finland and Sweden. It is noted that the conditions that led to the adoption of neutrality in politics are still different in the Swedish and Finnish cases. However, Russian aggression has caused dramatic changes in public opinion in Finland and Sweden regarding NATO membership. Such a radical transformation was the result of the reaction of the population of the Scandinavian countries to the symbolic crossing of the borders of the ontological security of the state, which destroyed the sense of security and raised the question of the relevance of the status of a neutral country in a period of danger to the European continent from the Russian Federation.