The book describes the failure of Switzerland's foreign policy opening towards the end of the Cold War. Since the early 1970s, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs had officially aimed for the activation and dynamization of foreign policy, specifically targeting active participation in the CSCE and joining the UN. However, after the near-failure of the second CSCE follow-up conference in 1983 and the clear rejection of UN membership by the Swiss electorate in 1986, this momentum was no longer felt. The question remained what had happened to the multilateral enthusiasm of the previous decade. The voting defeat of 1986 marked a real low point for the Federal Council's foreign policy during the Cold War. Official Swiss foreign policy would remain blocked for nearly a decade thereafter, only to be revived in the subsequent era.