Preface by Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis But is this enough for the future? In an increasingly multipolar world, Switzerland needs to have a clear idea of what it wants. “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there” – said the cat to Alice in Wonderland. As a highly networked country and host state of numerous international organisations, it is very much in our interest to look to the future and to know what path we want to take. © KEYSTONE / Walter Bieri When I became head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), one issue was a top priority: the institutional agreement with the EU. I gradually discovered other FDFA priorities but also realised that although there were sectoral strategies covering various areas, there was no overall vision. What are our actual foreign policy objectives? What global trends and developments do we face and what are the opportunities and challenges for Switzerland? The Federal Constitution provides us with our fundamental mandate and represents our raison d’être. The Federal Council’s foreign policy strategy is designed to interpret this fundamental mandate. But it is not well known, it is presented in broad strokes, and initially I did not know to what extent it was being put into practice. Various analysts I asked about this told me that Switzerland’s foreign policy was generally opportunity-driven. To some extent that is inevitable. Switzerland is not a major power holding the reins of world politics. And its pragmatic approach has so far proven its worth. Our country is doing very well. It enjoys a high international reputation. Swiss values such as our readiness for dialogue, reliability and honesty, and our power-sharing tradition and respect for the rule of law have long been acknowledged and appreciated. ii Switzerland’s foreign policy has essentially remained unchanged since the end of the Cold War. The geopolitical watershed the end of the Cold War represented was reflected in the Federal Council’s Foreign Policy Report of 1993, which placed Swiss foreign policy on a new conceptual footing. Since then, we have tightened a few bolts here and there, but by and large our foreign policy has been marked by continuity. Continuity is a Swiss trademark and remains important. But the world is not what it was. Switzerland needs the foresight to set new foreign policy paths. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. But we should gear our foreign policy to the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow and future-proof Switzerland’s strengths. Hence the idea of a vision. I decided to set up a working group to develop such a vision. It was to be composed of experts with a variety of backgrounds and have strong federal government and cantonal representation. In addition to senior FDFA officials and the president of the Conference of the Cantonal Governments of Switzerland, it was also to include representatives of the scientific community, business and civil society. This breadth of expertise ensured that the positions taken by the working group would be well balanced. At the same time, it was also important to keep the number of participants small enough to enable genuine discussion. A 10-year time frame (2019–28) was chosen, hence AVIS28: Aussenpolitische Vision Schweiz 2028, i.e., Switzerland’s 2028 Foreign Policy Vision. The vision is where we want to be by 2028. The idea was to aim for a horizon neither too near nor too distant, but sufficiently within reach to allow us to derive concrete goals from it.