A Suíça e as organizações internacionais: ceticismo e vocação universal

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the features of the Swiss national identity projected on its behaviour towards the international organizations based on its territory. The identity’s atributes analyzed are the Swiss skepticism about supranationality, as well as the universalism of international Geneva, constituents of the helvecian ethos. We seek to asses to which point this qualities are controversial or complementary to the Swiss views, taking into account the alleged controversy between Switzerland’s isolationism regarding high politics’ subjects and Geneva’s celebrated protagonism on internacional policy’s stage. Therefore, it’s essencial to analyze the theory and historical development of international organizations per se and its relationship with the alpine country, as a complement to the accounts previously exposed. The final considerations are dedicated to a analytical criticism of Switzerland’s foreign stance. This work is guided by the inductive method and historical analysis, which confirm the existing complementarity between Swiss skepticism and Geneva’s protagonism, not only on the relationship between the Confederation and the international organizations, but also on its undestanding of the international system and its posture therefrom derived.