Serbia’s Military Neutrality: Is It Economically Beneficial?

Abstract

This paper discusses neutrality as a changing concept in international relations; the origin and characteristics of Serbia’s military neutrality; as well as the country’s general economic background and its defence spending. The paper also compares Serbian defence expenditure with the defence expenditure of the European members of the North American Treaty Organisation (NATO), members of the Eurasian and Russia-based Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and traditionally neutral countries in Europe. The paper explores how Serbia’s current policy of military neutrality, while maintaining operational links with other military organisations in Europe, has had a positive impact on the Serbian economy in general.
KEYWORDS:

• Military neutrality
• defence spending
• Serbia
• defence

Description