This book examines Vatican diplomacy from the fall of the Papal States in 1870 to the present day. The contributors focus on the concept of permanent neutrality and trace the Vatican’s political transformation into a modern international institution in conjunction with its use of neutrality as a tool of diplomacy and statecraft.

The essays in this book cover a fast-paced 150 years of Vatican diplomacy, starting from the fall of the Papal States in 1870 to the present day. They trace the transformation of the Vatican from a state like any other to an entity uniquely providing spiritual and moral sustenance in world affairs. In particular, the book details the Holy See’s use of neutrality as a tool and the principal statecraft in its diplomatic portmanteau. This concept of “permanent neutrality,” as codified in the Lateran Treaties of 1929, is a central concept adding to the Vatican's uniqueness and, as a result, the analysis of its policies does not easily fit within standard international relations or foreign policy scholarship. These essays consider in detail the Vatican’s history with “permanent neutrality” and its application in diplomacy toward delicate situations as, for instance, vis a vis Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan, but also in the international relations of the Cold War in debates about nuclear non-proliferation, or outreach toward the third world, including Cuba and Venezuela. The book also considers the ineluctable tension between pastoral teachings and realpolitik, as the church faces a reckoning with its history.

Acknowledgments

Introduction, Marshall J. Breger and Herbert Reginbogin

FROM THE PAPAL STATES TO THE VATICAN: 1870–1929

Chapter 1 - The Holy See and Neutrality: Vatican Diplomacy 1870-1929, John F. Pollard

Chapter 2 - The Holy See and Neutrality in the Aftermath of World War I: The Consequences of the Treaty of Versailles and Other Peace Treaties, Kurt Martens

Chapter 3 - The Lateran Treaty and the Hermeneutics of the Holy See Neutrality, Maria d’Airenzo

THE LONG SECOND WORLD WAR 1931-1945

Chapter 4 - Neutrality to the Test: The Vatican and the Fascist Wars of the Thirties, Lucia Ceci

Chapter 5 - Vatican Diplomacy and Church Realities in the Philippines during World War II, Pascal Lottaz

Chapter 6 - Pope Pius XII, Vatican Neutrality, and the Holocaust: Case Studies from the Newly Opened Vatican Archives, Suzanne Brown-Fleming

INTO THE COLD: 1950–1990

Chapter 7 - No Neutrality in Ideology: The Holy See and the Cold War, Piotr H. Kosicki

Chapter 8 - The Holy See’s Efforts to Secure the Departure of Cardinal Mindszenty: Diplomacy in a Cold War Context, Arpad von Klimo and Margit Balogh

POST-COLD WAR: 1990–2020

Chapter 9 - The Liminal Papacy of Pope Francis and a New Context for Vatican Neutrality and Sovereignty, Massimo Faggioli

Chapter 10 - Neutrality as an Aid to Holy See Diplomacy: Iraq and Syria, 1991-2011, Luke Cahill

Chapter 11 - The Church and the Bomb: Holy See Diplomacy and Nuclear Weapons, Maryann Cusimano Love

Chapter 12 - Vatican's / Holy See's Approach to Nonproliferation: The US and Japan, Saho Matsumoto

Chapter 13 - Power and Spirituality: The Collision of Canon and International Law, Herbert Reginbogin

Index

About the Contributors