Switzerland: A Model of Peace

In terms of peace, Switzerland is a model country. Located in Central Europe, Switzerland is a landlocked country. It does not have a coastline. Some people might think that for a country to lack access to the sea is a significant limitation. However, despite this supposed limitation, Switzerland is a highly developed country.

Iraq has only a remote coastline. To make up for this supposed limitation, it mobilised a massive amount of resources, built up a vast army, and attacked neighbouring Kuwait, so that it could capture its coastal area and thereby compensate for its small coastline. Now, what was the outcome of this action? Its outcome was that Iraq was ravaged by a war it had not yet recovered from. Switzerland, which has no coastline, is continuing to make remarkable progress, while Iraq was so severely devastated by the war that was unleashed that perhaps not even in the successive hundred years can it make up for what it has lost and the damage that it has suffered.

This stark contrast between the conditions of these two countries can be said to be because of the difference between a peaceful policy, on the one hand, and a violent policy, on the other. Switzerland made up for its lack of a coastline by following a peaceful policy of not maintaining any powerful army, so that none of its neighbouring countries would be afraid of it. Instead, it unilaterally established good relations with its neighbouring countries. It made benefitting others, not harming them, its policy. In contrast, Iraq adopted just the opposite policy. The results clearly show us which of these two policies proved more beneficial.