What does Swiss foreign policy communicate?

«We need to worry a lot less about how to communicate our actions and much more about what our actions communicate», Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen observed critically this summer regarding US policy towards Islamic countries.  Generally it is not the communication that is the problem, but the policies. The Swiss Government should also take Mullen's message to heart. The series of foreign policy mishaps that has plagued Switzerland over the past year is not attributable to our failure to cultivate our friends or to poor communication of our viewpoints, but to the fact that our policies are not acceptable to other countries.
Let us take the example of tax policy. Until recently, Switzerland guaranteed foreign tax evaders protection from their tax authorities, at the same time punishing local tax evaders. In that way we laid claim to some part of the tax base of other countries. Small wonder then that this policy proved untenable over the long run.
There are similar problems in the making when it comes to international burden sharing. Our share in it is declining, and this was greeted with regret even in the just released Federal Cabinet's Foreign Policy Report. Yet the government is itself responsible for this. One case in point is development aid, which it is unwilling to increase to 0.5 per cent of GNP despite a decision by the Parliament. Another case is world economic recovery. By international comparison, the Federal Cabinet tabled minuscule stimulus packages, which the Parliament scaled back even further. Their hope is to emerge from the crisis somewhat better off than the foreign competitors. But, Switzerland's export industry too stands to gain from the billions being spent by foreign governments. The fact that Switzerland has shirked its contribution to the world economy’s recovery is unlikely go unnoticed.
Another potentially explosive communication issue is the anti-minaret initiative, which is to go to referendum in November. What will this «communicate» to the world's 1.6 billion Muslims if it is accepted? Proof of friendship? Hopes for good, and for Switzerland profitable economic relations with the Middle East, India or Pakistan? The Swiss establishment is of course hoping that the initiative will be rejected. It would be better able to put across its repudiation had it also made clear in the past on other matters (taxes, burden sharing) that domestic policy decisions also have global domestic policy implications, and should be conceived such that they are in line with the global common interest.

Peter Niggli, Director Alliance Sud