Neutrality and Shelter Seeking: The Case of Malta

Abstract

Historically, the Maltese were long accustomed to devising their foreign policy based on what they could offer others economically. This chapter, alternatively, demonstrates how the Nationalist Party believed that Malta could harness international institutions to liberate herself from the confines of a strategic calculus dependent upon the capricious needs of external actors. Hence, this chapter focuses predominantly on the strategies pursued by Maltese Prime Minister Edward Fenech Adami between 1987 and 2004 in order to see Malta formally accede to the European Union (EU). In order to safeguard the independent autonomy of the small state, pooling sovereignty would enable Malta to seek shelter within the EU, with access to markets as a lasting guarantor of economic security and access to a security community that would be more reliable than bilateral arrangements with Libya and Italy. Acceding to the EU meant more than simply the enjoining of an international institution: in material terms, it meant a lasting solution to the ‘survivalism’ challenge faced by the newly independent nation. This Western-oriented approach was dogged by the countervailing actions of the Labour Party, which did not want to risk compromising Malta’s neutrality. However, Malta ultimately acceded in 2004 and gained access to the markets, finances, and infrastructural assistance that would allow her to develop in another ecosystem, without the fear of ever succumbing once more to a foreign entity. In return, she played an invaluable role in the 2011 Libya crisis, demonstrating how a small state may be neutral but not neutralised in the maintenance of international security.