Geography is the reason that NATO would find it more convenient to have Austria in rather than out. The alliance has agreed to admit Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic as members next year, and Austria provides a strategic link with them. It has normally granted transit rights, but this could change if the Socialist Democrats formed a coalition with the Greens and other leftist elements. Otherwise, Austria's contribution to the alliance would be puny. It spends a mere 0.8 percent of gross domestic product on its military.
History is the main reason for Austria's remaining out.
The Soviet Union agreed to withdraw its occupation troops and recognize the 1955 state treaty on the express condition that Austria ''of its own free will'' declare itself permanently neutral after the departure of the occupying powers. The neutrality pledge has lost any practical meaning with Austria's membership of the European Union. But it still sets off nostalgic reactions on the left. Under Bruno Kreisky, a Socialist chancellor who served from 1970 until 1983, neutrality became a moral stance, with Austria styling itself a mediator in world conflicts, equidistant from East and West. Mr. Pelinka said in an article that neutrality had been a fiction, and certainly served no purpose with the ending of the Cold War.