When the Pacific atoll, Tuvalu, joined the United Nations last year, Switzerland became the only country in the world to remain outside the family of nations.
With referendums on both the UN and EU approaching, the Swiss are now facing a momentous juncture in their national history, which is dividing the country as never before.
The Swiss Foreign Minister, Mr Joseph Deiss, has no doubts in his mind. Switzerland has nothing to fear and everything to gain from giving up its treasured isolationism, a mindset that has long set the country apart from the rest of the world.
It's a message on which Mr Deiss will place increasing emphasis in the coming months, as he attempts to convince an independent-minded electorate that it's good to belong to the international club.
Speaking to The Irish Times, the Foreign Minister said: "We need to integrate ourselves more fully with the international networks. It is ridiculous that Switzerland is the only country outside the UN with just the Vatican to keep us company.
"But we can only advise the electorate on the way forward. We will not tell them what to do, so the final decision is up to the Swiss people."
Mr Deiss is keen to avoid the type of embarrassing mishap that befell a predecessor. In 1986 over 75 per cent of the Swiss people gave joining the UN a resounding No vote. They have been similarly singleminded against any political attempts to sidle up to the EU and have so far given full integration with Europe a wide berth.
This week, however, Switzerland will be given an opportunity to send a clear message on whether it wants to be part of the global village. In a referendum, proposed by a group of pro-European voters, the electorate will decide if conditions are right to begin immediate discussions on joining the EU.
Mr Stefan Laubli (23), the secretary-general of the Swiss European Movement, said: "Our country is very conservative, and the main aim of this referendum is to start public debate on the question of Europe. We have received a lot of behind-the-scenes support from ministers who think we are doing the right thing."
Although actively campaigning for full EU membership, the government is keen to shrug off the likely slap in the face that the vote on March 4th will bring.
"The vote is premature," said Mr Deiss. "We should be asking the people about joining in the future. Switzerland is not ready now."
Hoping for a sea change in the normally wary public, the government is instead pinning its hopes on a June referendum.
This will decide whether Swiss soldiers should become a permanent, armed fixture on UN peacekeeping missions.
It is this call to arms that worries the anti-integration lobby. Mr Hans Fehr, an MP and director of the Campaign for an Independent and Neutral Switzerland, believes that the vote could trick the Swiss people into integration.
Isolation and neutrality have been permanently enshrined in Swiss history since the 19th century. These beliefs have kept Switzerland united, vitally important for a country made up of four different cultural traditions, each speaking its own language.
Attempts by outsiders to influence this Swiss way of life are still regarded suspiciously. With a national majority, the German-speaking Swiss are notoriously sceptical and reluctant to welcome any interference. In these communities, the talk on the streets is of destroying the national character; even, some argue, of destroying Switzerland itself.
The government has written off such attitudes as the views of an older generation, blind to the inevitable winds of change. Yet a recent study, carried out by the government's own census, found that among the 20-yearolds surveyed, more were wary of joining either the UN or EU than their parents or grandparents. They went on to say that Switzerland should continue to be a "special case" in the world, with the country's neutrality at the fore of any developments.
Others fear that membership of the EU will cause damaging divisions to Switzerland along cultural lines, a scenario that Mr Deiss admits might happen.
"Of course, there could be a time in the EU when the French part of Switzerland will align itself with France and the German part with Germany and so on. But I'm not convinced that this will be a problem for our country. We are strong enough to manage such disagreements."
Despite such warnings from its people, the Swiss government will continue to coax its hitherto reluctant electorate into the international arena.
They are planning to hold a vote on full UN membership early in 2002 and in the meantime are campaigning to bring a predominantly sceptical nation round to the idea that the way forward is to reach over the Alps, rather than shelter behind them.