The Netherlands is positioned amidst three major powers and controls the mouths of three main European rivers. Until the First World War, its choice for armed neutrality (1840-1940) seemed to be the most fitting answer to its security problem. After 1918, the Netherlands had difficulties adjusting to modern war, having decreased its defence budget substantially, and lacked a coherent political-military answer to the interwar strategic and operational challenges. Old notions of the Netherlands as a vital element of regional peace and as a country that could influence the behaviour of its large neighbours no longer fitted reality. Neutrality ceased to provide security to the country, thereby also endangering the stability in Western Europe to which the Dutch so wholeheartedly aspired.

中文翻译：

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“为了欧洲的和平与安宁”：1890-1940 年荷兰中立的军事和战略作用

荷兰位于三个大国之间，控制着欧洲三大河流的入海口。在第一次世界大战之前，它选择武装中立（1840-1940）似乎是解决其安全问题的最合适的答案。1918 年之后，荷兰难以适应现代战争，大幅削减了国防预算，并且缺乏对两次世界大战之间的战略和作战挑战的连贯的政治军事回应。将荷兰视为地区和平的重要因素以及可以影响其邻国行为的国家的旧观念已不再符合现实。中立不再为该国提供安全保障，从而也危及荷兰人渴望的西欧稳定。