Redefining neutrality as a dynamic and strategic posture in global politics, this open access interdisciplinary volume moves beyond Cold War legacies and Eurocentric legal frameworks to explore neutrality through philosophy, law, economics, and international relations. Contributions include the examination of ancient texts including Kautilya's Arthashastra, the resilience of neutrality law in cyber warfare, and the strategic agency of small states in nuclear diplomacy and multipolar conflict. With diverse global case studies from Europe, Asia, and the Americas, this innovative volume decentralizes traditional narratives and highlights neutrality's relevance in today's fragmented world order. Whether as a tool of sovereignty, a buffer against great power rivalry, or a platform for global peacebuilding, neutrality emerges as a vital concept for scholars, diplomats, and policymakers seeking to understand how states navigate autonomy, responsibility, and global governance in the 21st century.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Kyoto University.

Pascal Lottaz is a Swiss academic at Kyoto University, Japan, where he researches neutral actors in international relations. He heads the research network neutralitystudies.com, which organizes regular academic conferences and publications. He has published four edited volumes and a monograph on neutrality. He is also the host of the popular YouTube Channel “Neutrality Studies”.

Eric Golson is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Surrey, UK. As an economist with expertise in economic warfare, trade, finance, business decision making and international political economy, he has travelled the world exploring complex economic warfare issues for governments and businesses. He has co-authored three books on historical cases of economic warfare, small states and neutrality.

Hillary Briffa is a Senior Lecturer in National Security Studies and Assistant Director for the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College London, UK. She has published extensively on small state neutrality, particularly the neutrality of small European states such as Malta.

Naman Karl-Thomas Habtom has worked as a research assistant specialising in security policy, a foreign affairs writer, as an editor, guest researcher at the Swedish Defence University, Université Libre de Bruxelle, and Stockholm University, and the University of Luxembourg. His research focuses on contemporary military and diplomatic history.