Foreign policy in Belgium

Abstract The historical and geopolitical development of Belgium’s foreign policy is considered through four major areas: security; economic integration; value-based diplomacy; and institutional developments. We explore how Belgium’s obligation to remain neutral in the post-independence era was challenged by WWI, WWII, and the shift to multilateral alliances in the post-war era with the UN and EU. We further consider how Belgian foreign policy became increasingly shaped by the transition from a unitary to a federal state, where multilateral activism contributed to a foreign policy emphasizing peace and partnership, while simultaneously seeking to balance commitments to Atlantic and European alliances. This chapter suggests that defining Belgian foreign policy in its entirety remains challenging. Belgium’s complex evolution as a federal state, along with its various international commitments, ensures that questions about the nature of diplomacy pose challenges: is a coherent vision for Belgian foreign policy tenable, or is it undergoing further evolution?