2025-08-11

2025-08-11 05:00 pm

Neutrality

The Wikipedia article on Neutral country lists Switzerland as a example of armed neutrality, meaning the neutral country maintains a strong deterrent force for defense.

The link is lost somewhere in the browser history but apparently the Swiss have spent less than 2% of their GDP on the military since 1980, less than 1% in recent years.

Is it absolutely necessary for countries like France to increase their "defense" spending to 5% of GDP? If France were neutral like Switzerland, could it defend itself with 1% instead?