Need information on European Military policy

C

Correia

New member
A friend of mine is in a political science class, and needs to write a paper on the military policy, strategy, etc. of Austria.

Do any of you guys know of any good books or webpages that might be of use here. I don't know very much about this but I figured with all of our ex-military guys here somebody would know something. Thanks.
 
Correia:

That's gonna be a tough one...since the fall of the Austrio-Hungarian Empire, Austria has (with the exception of it's inclusion into the Third Reich) been able to remain a neutral nation. It's defense policy is, IIRC, similar to Switzerland's...self-defense only, no adventurism allowed.

For a first look to obtain a quick snapshot, I recommend the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)...I'ts published by the Economist magazine and will give a thorough laydown of the nation's economy, political system, military posture and defense policy, infrastructure, demographics, etc. It would be an excellent starting point. Any college or university library worthy of the name should have it available.

Jane's may also have some info in hard copy and on the web.

Mike
 
Here are some sites you might want to look at on Austria, in no particular order:
http://www.austria.org/history.htm
http://www.periscope.usni.com/demo/nations/naeur/austria/
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/au.html
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/attoc.html

Mike's idea is an excellent one, too.

There have been news articles about Austria's new right-wing government in the last few weeks. You could try searching back issues of the Washington Post.
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/searches/mainsrch.htm

I hope that helps!

[This message has been edited by Bezdelnik (edited February 25, 2000).]
 
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the general idea was that an aggressor would want to march through Austria quickly, and so the general strategy was make this costly and slow. The topography of Austria leaves only very few east-west or north-south transit routes suitable for transport of mechanized units. These would be blocked, adjacent flat territory mined. The Austrian army has "intelligent" mines, that can tell the difference between a tank and a truck.

hang on, i'll continue later...
 
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, EU mebership and pending EU eastwards expansion (by acquiring new members, of course), this model has become obsolete.

Discussions have commenced about what the army is needed for, with the Green party's platform stating that national armies should be stripped of their ofensive capabilities, and the remaining remnants put under UN control.

Austria committed itself to "everlasting armed neutrality" after WWII; it seems that "everlasting" means about 50 years to politicians...

The Austrian army is divided into regional defense units and specialized units providing specific services throughout Austria. Strategy is to give up the relatively flat areas easily controlled by superior mechanized forces (annoying them by guerilla tactics) and to hold the mountainous areas where individual combat can be forced upon any invader.
 
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