Scholars have increasingly been investigating human sexuality as an important field of social history in particular national cultures. This volume examines both continuities and changing patterns of sexual behavior in Austria.

Matti Bunzl analyses the legal penalties for homosexuality in postwar Austria and the liberation of the gay movement as a result of EU pressures after Austria joined the European Union in 1995. Peter Judson analyzes the major influence of the Catholic Church on Austrian sexuality through the lens of a recent gay and sex abuse scandals in the church hierarchy. In “romancing the foreigner” Julia Woesthoff analyzes the growing presence of foreign workers (gastarbeiter) in postwar Austria and their sexual contacts with natives.

Historians Günther Kronenbitter, Alexander Lassner, Günter Bischof, Joanna Granville and Martin Kofler provide historical case studies of pre-and post-World War I and II Austrian diplomacy, Austria’s dealing with Hungarian crisis of 1956, and its mediation between Kennedy and Khrushchev in the early 1960s. Political Scientists Romain Kirt, Stefan Mayer, and Gunther Hauser analyze small states foreign policy making in a globalizing world, as well as Austrian federal states’ separate regional policy initiatives abroad vis-à-vis the national government, and her role vis-à-vis current European security initiatives. Michael Gehler suggests a periodization scheme for post-World War II Austrian foreign policy regimes and provides a valuable summary for researchers of both the available archival and printed diplomatic source collections.

In 2005 Austria is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its liberation from the Nazi regime and the 50th anniversary of the State Treaty that ended the occupation and returned full sovereignty to the country. A “Historiography Roundtable” is dedicated to the Austrian Occupation decade (1955-1945) leading up to this event. Günter Bischof reports on the state of occupation historiography, Oliver Rathkolb on the historical memory of the occupation, Michael Gehler on the context of the German question, Wolfgang Mueller and Norman Naimark on Stalin’s Cold War and Soviet policies towards Austria during those years.
Review essays and book reviews on art theft, anti-semitism, the Hungarian crisis of 1956, South Tyrol and regional identity in Austria complete the volume.

Günter Bischof is professor of history and director of CenterAustria at the University of New Orleans; Anton Pelinka is professor of political science and dean of the political science and sociology faculty at the University of Innsbruck and director of the Institute of Conflict Research in Vienna; Michael Gehler is professor of contemporary history at the University of Innsbruck.

The presentation of CAS volume I "Austria in the New Europe" in Vienna's "Presseclub Concordia" in April 1994. The editors Guenter Bischof and Anton Pelinka with Peter Marboe, head of the culture section in the Foreign Ministry (from left to right).

How Western are the Austrian? This volume analyzes trends toward Americanization and Westernization in Austria throughout the twentieth century.

After Stalin's death, during a respite in Cold War tensions in 1955, Austria managed to rid itself of a quadripartite occupation regime and become a neutral state. As the Cold War continued, Austria's policy of neutrality helped make this small country into an important mediator of East-West differences, and neutrality became a crucial part of Austria's postwar identity. In the post-Cold War era Austrian neutrality seems to demand redefinition. The work addresses such issues as what neutrality means when Austria's neighbors are joining NATO. What is the difference between Austrian neutrality in 1955 and 2000? In remaining apart from NATO, do Austrian elites risk their nation's national security? Is Austria a "free rider," too stingy to contribute to Western defense? Has the neutralist mentality become such a crucial part of AUstrian postwar identity that its abandonment will threaten civil society?