Weird, isn't it? Vienna is the birthplace of modern diplomacy. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations underwrites the entire framework of modern international relations. Agreed in Vienna in 1961, it's about to celebrate its half century - just as an upstart Australian threatens to bring the whole diplomatic edifice tumbling down.

Under the Vienna Convention, diplomats enjoy a special status. They're privileged, that is, not subject to the same rules as you and I, and they are - or were - the keepers of state secrets. Oh, how a week of WikiLeaks can change the world! And what better barricade from which to observe this revolution than the banks of the Danube, the Hofburg palace and the other landmarks where modern diplomacy decided its own game plan.

The first leaks allowed us a look into Austrian banks and their behavior over the past decade. US cables from American diplomats in Vienna show alarm at how lightly these drivers of the Austrian economy - the banks - stepped into the muddy waters of business with regimes which Washington liked to call "rogue states."

A transfer to North Korea here, a deal with Iran there and while we're at it, let's overlook the Russian mafia boss who wants to launder his Ukrainian gas company at an Austrian bank. What George W Bush called the "axis of evil" was just another country or three for Austrian companies and their bankers.

What we have learnt is that the banks did do business with unsavory characters in Eastern Europe and that the Americans called Austrian politicians in for a few drinks and a bit of a chat - all according to Vienna Convention rules and the expectation of confidentiality. They also hauled the bankers over the coals and as a result, the banks cut their ties to the appalling people they were doing business with.

This brings us to the most revealing part of the WikiLeaks cables. US diplomats see "Austria's engagement with the world slipping and narrowing." Its chancellor Werner Faymann, a Social Democrat, is "not interested in foreign relations." Austria, conclude the Americans, is using its neutrality and pacifism as cover for business-led offensives. Washington laments that when it comes to sending its soldiers abroad, Austria is "risk averse" in the extreme.

The fact is: the Americans are right about Vienna. It does do deals with dubious regimes and it doesn't want to send its soldiers off to fight America's or anyone else's wars. WikiLeaks revelations have brought a little huffing and puffing from Austrian politicians who feel personally slighted, but I think they actually welcome the leaks. These once secret cables tell the voters, in lines crafted by gifted wordsmiths, that their elected lawmakers are just like them: not too enamored of the Americans and not too concerned about the ethics of the persons with whom they are doing business.

Seen from the banks of the Danube, The Vienna Convention, 50 years old next year, is looking weak and quite leaky.

Author: Kerry Skyring, Vienna
Editor: Sabina Casagrande