Switzerland

Colonial Debt

Perpetrator

Safe-haven rents on colonial and wartime capital flight: banking secrecy and neutrality branding monetized other people’s plunder. Direct overseas colonies were limited; facilitation of stolen surplus was not. The debt line is refuge-and-rent.

Sovereignty Index

8 / 10

High for a non-EU state: armed neutrality doctrine, fiscal strength, and institutional continuity create unusual room. Limits appear when great-power markets or sanctions regimes tighten.

External Influence

20% EU-market dependent

EU-market dependence is the main tether. Neutrality reduces alliance capture, but trade gravity still prices Swiss choices.

Israel Ties?0-10 composite of public diplomatic, military, economic, and intelligence cooperation with Israel.

Mixed

5 / 10

Trade and dual-use tech exposure with formal neutrality capping military depth; selective security contacts. Not a NATO arms-pipeline peer, but not an adversarial freeze either. Mid-band for commercial openness under neutrality theater.

Primary Critique

Perpetrator

Armed neutrality financed by other people’s stolen money. Humanitarian branding coexists with historical capital-laundry infrastructure. The vault business model is the point.