Does Neutrality Prevent Intervention ?

Non Alignment Movement was created during cold war to safeguard its members from the intervention of USA or Russia, but it has failed to do so. 

The neutral status of Ukraine could not defend its sovereignty which forced it to join the western military pact—NATO. The Ukranian parliament voted to officially associate it with the stronger military force of the west, in a bid to save its sovereignty and territorial integrity from the invasion of stronger eastern neighbor. 

The middle-of-the-road position couldn't save Ukraine from the intervention of Russia. Non Alignment Movement (NAM) which was created at the height of the cold war in 1961, to counter the effect of western imperialism and Russian communism, is still campaign with 120 member states on board. But the alliance of almost two third of the world’s nations could not save Kiev from Kremlin’s unlawful intervention.

Now, the question arises. Is neutrality a threat to sovereignty, territorial integrity and peace of an independent nation?

Neutrality has fewer space in the current world order. The world is very much divided. When the world was divided into the aforementioned power blocs, some rich countries--Europeans and Baltic states were still their allies. Even after the fall of Russian empire, the world was almost unipolar with the US as the powerful polar star. However, the rise of China, India, Brazil and South Africa, and forming BRICS, including Russia, has made the world multi-polar. This signifies that countries are aligned towards their respective influential poles. Even the UN security council is deeply divided between cold war era power alliances, i.e. US (UK and France) and Russia (with China). 

At this juncture, especially the LDC and LLDCs are more vulnerable to encroachment from the old as well as new power blocs. India has still turbulent border dispute with its neighbors, especially Nepal, where SSB of India is often said to move border pillars. In addition, China's presence in the South China Sea is hostile for Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Taiwan. 

Especially, after Ukraine joined NATO, the neutral path of two thirds of the countries of the world is in limbo. It has neither protected them from encroachment of the powerful, and the new powers are constantly emerging. As a result, neutrality has become the connotation of surrender.  

Economics and the fall of nationalism

Economic insecurity and harsh taxation system have forced people to goodbye their citizenship.

The feeling of one’s attachment to the country of birth is gradually fading. Although the USA attracts immigrants globally, the citizen is already packing their bags for other countries leaving their citizenship and permanent residency. Whereas, thousands of immigrants are risking their lives entering Australia and Europe. The major reason behind, among others, is the economy.

The figure of Americans denouncing their passport has soared lately. Particularly, the new tax law, Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is infuriating many expats. According to Federal Register, 776 US citizens bid their final goodbye to the US. Whereas, altogether 2,999, a 221% increase from the previous years of denouncement, was seen in 2013.

Similarly, a large number of Russians left their country in 2014 than before. Russia’s official statistics service, Rosstat, shows the exodus of 186,382 Russians in 2013 and 122,751 in 2012. Besides Putin’s policy of isolating Russia from the outside world, and the glimpse of severe recession due to western sanction made them to think about their future outside Russia.

Nearly half of China's business leaders with more than $16 million of wealth have investments overseas, according to the research firm, Bain Consulting. Now, China’s fortune of hundreds of billions of dollars, and waves of millionaires are flocking out of China to overseas. The wealthy are moving to protect their wealth, their health and their families. As well, with increasingly cracking down on ill-gotten gains and corruption, several politically connected rich are eyeing for safer shelters abroad.

The exodus of the citizen of the big economy to safe havens for securing their hard gotten wealth shows that economy greater role than nationalism. The era of utter nationalism where people were motivated to serve, live or even die for their birthplace is gradually shifting to economic domain. The globalization has further made the border permeable for those willing to migrate.

In a nutshell, if you want to retain your citizen, don’t impose more economic burden over them. Simple!