The Principality of Liechtenstein, a five-by-twelve-mile independent State in the central Alps between Austria and Switzerland, is dogged but slow. Back in 1866, when Liechtenstein decided to join Austria and go to war against Prussia, its Army of

80 tall soldiers put on their leather helmets, marched off. But when they arrived at the front, the war was over: Prussia had won.

Since Bismarck considered Liechtenstein too microscopic to list in the peace treaty, the Principality technically continued, and still continues, at war with Germany. This is the oldest and most peaceful declared war in the world.* It is also probably...