Austria was a major power in Central Europe for centuries in various state guises, until the fall of its Habsburg dynasty after the First World War. But its position at the geographical heart of Europe, and its neutral status during the Cold War between NATO and the Soviet bloc, maintained the much-reduced country’s strategic significance.Austria is now a member of the European Union, but an enduring legacy of its decades of post-war neutrality can be seen in the large number of international organisations that call its capital Vienna their home.These include the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Opec, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.The political consensus, which has seen the Social Democrats and the conservative People’s Party share power for much of the post-war period, has come under strain in recent years with the rise of the nationalist Freedom Party.

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