Oman as a Neutral State
Seminar
In this itineration of ‘Majlis@Waseda’ workshop, Dr. Pascal Lottaz will be talking about his research on neutral powers and how that relates to Oman, a country that does not call itself officially neutral, but has been perceived as such for the past 50 years and according to its foreign policy principles is a “friend to all.”
Oman is living the dictum of the neutral Melians who according to Thucydides wanted to be:
Friend to all, and foe to neither.
Thucydides
The strategy is a double edged sword. While it kept the Melians save in the Peloponnesian Wars for several decades, in the end the Athenians, unwilling to accept a sovereign non-ally in its vicinity, destroyed the island nation. This episode and other neutral instances of world history have a lot to teach about militarily “uncommitted” foreign policies. The talk will explore the details.