Double Loyalties?

Abstract

As North–South conflict appeared to overshadow Cold War tensions in the early 1970s, minor powers as well as non-aligned states across the world faced new challenges. The oil crisis, the rise of environmentalism, and the calls for a New International Economic Order (NIEO) propelled a wide-ranging debate within the Nordic countries regarding their complex position vis-à-vis international development and global environment. In Sweden, these debates reflect the emergence of (inter)national knowledge production about economic inequalities, ecological imbalances, and sustainable development. While these debates can be followed in both media and public debate, they also resulted in a specific body of governmental reports, research projects, and future long-term planning for the 1980s. By analysing a series of such studies from Sweden, this article problematizes the fusing of ecology and economy, the grand strategy of small states, and the local intellectual history of global solidarity during a key moment in the global Cold War. It is argued that the NIEO agenda/ideology played a significant but understudied role in shaping the debate on the balance between development and environment as well as the idea of Sweden’s ‘double loyalties’ as a solidaristic small state and as a competitive advanced economy.