From Eventual Neutrality to Non-Aligned Policy at the Initial Stage of the Cold War: the Swedish Experience

Abstract

This article is devoted to the shaping of a new security doctrine in Sweden after World War II, its evolving from eventual neutrality to a deliberate avoidance of military-political alliances, meaning non-alliance politics. Later this concept was called “freedom from alliances in peacetime in order to maintain neutrality in the times of war”. The author of the article focuses on establishing of Sweden's non-alliance politics, which took place at the time of the antagonism gaining between the United States and the USSR in the late 1940s — early 1950s, describes the main difficulties that the Scandinavian state had to face during this period and ways to solve the problems, standing in the way of the realization of a new doctrine. In the article a significant attention is paid to Swedish politicians who played significant roles in the shaping and sustainable development of Swedish non-alliance politics in the second half of the 20th century.