Switzerland's belated entry into the UN is a giant step for this country but a small step for the UN system. Switzerland is already well-integrated into the UN's specialized agencies and funds as a full and active member.

It has stayed out of the mother organization because the latter contains the Security Council that decides to impose sanctions and fight wars around the world. Such activities are thought by many to violate Switzerland's political neutrality, which helped it to avoid Europe's wars and to become rich by becoming a safe haven for everyone's money.

The UN remains controversial in Switzerland, and the decision shakes the foundations of Swiss political and military neutrality. The right fought fiercely against entry to keep neutrality unchanged, while many from the left voted because of anti Americanism and the protection that they thought UN membership might bring against US pressure in world affairs. The yes votes in Zurich, Basle and Bern, the country's most powerful cantons, demonstrate that voters believe the traditional form of Swiss neutrality is not effective in a world fighting against terrorism. In the previous referendum held in 1986, the rejection rates in those cantons were as high as 77 percent, and the overall vote was 76 percent against and 24 percent in favor. This time, the overall figures were 54.6 percent in favor and 45.4 percent against.

Powerful shocks in recent years have dented much of Switzerland's self-confidence and myths of clockwork precision, efficiency and good governance. It is still reeling under the nearly two-billion-dollar settlement won by international Jewish organizations that accused Swiss banks of refusing to return billions of dollars in assets of holocaust victims. A government appointed top level panel of historians also found that its receptiveness to Jews fleeing the Nazis left much to be desired.

Switzerland's crown jewel, Swissair, went bankrupt last year and suffered the humiliation of its creditors grounding its planes because it could not pay for fuel. Now it appears that some of Switzerland's finest companies are in deep trouble, including Zurich Financial Services, the insurer Swiss Life, and ABB, the Swedish-Swiss heavy engineering conglomerate. UBS, the country's largest bank, is still in upheaval, and Novartis, the largest life sciences conglomerate, has serious regulatory problems in the US.

It is increasingly clear that the largest Swiss companies and top politicians operate a system of crony capitalism and secrecy. Similar systems exist in France, Germany and Italy, but Switzerland is more vulnerable because its prosperity depends on foreigners since its internal market usually supplies less than 5 percent of the turnover of its major companies. Foreign institutional shareholders turned a blind eye to the cronyism because Switzerland Inc. had created an image of business probity. That confidence has been shaken.

Switzerland's traditional doctrine of neutrality changed in 2001 when a referendum authorized Swiss soldiers seconded to the UN as Blue Helmets in Kosovo to carry weapons for self defense. Finally, the electorate seems to have thought that it might as well walk the extra centimeter needed to fully enter the UN since it is already sending soldiers to take part in UN peace keeping operations.

In any case, Switzerland's military neutrality was compromised after the World War II because it is a steadfast member of the Atlantic Alliance, which is the political wing of NATO, although it continues to stay out of the military aspects of NATO.