Swedish Foreign Policy a Case of Security Versus Neutrality

International Politics

Government 340

Literature Reivew

Prof. Skran

3/7/2014

Carl-Christian Valentin

Swedish Foreign Policy a case of Security versus Neutrality

Sweden has not always been the neutral and peaceful country that it is today taking a leading role in promoting women’s rights, human rights and equality. Sweden had an aggressive nature up to 1814 where it decides to give up on its aggressive nature and abandon its war prone attitude since it had fought twenty five wars in the period of 300 years. Sweden decided to change its foreign policy from an aggressive natured one to neutrality. As most people know now Sweden has not been involved in any military conflict itself since the nineteenth century. Sweden’s standing concerning security and neutrality is that it is free from alliances that force them to engage with military force hence enforcing their neutrality. Yet even though Sweden is not a part of NATO it still does have security measures being an EU member state and that has its own independent security guarantee. There are multiple schools of thought to evaluate Sweden’s pursuit of being free from alliances in peace and being neutral in war the two schools that will the focus will be the realist school and the liberal school. The realist school of thought focuses on the anarchic style of international relations and their interactions among them. They challenge the concept that neutralism is utopian and that Sweden follows a realist foreign policy on national self-interest and self-preservation. The realist approach explains the proclaimed foreign policy of neutrality and the varying degree of its practical application. Whilst the liberal school shows the approach to foreign policy with the steadfast belief of conflict resolution through diplomacy and focus on providing aid and human rights. The goal of this paper is to find out how Sweden’s foreign policy through neutrality being free from alliances is used to provide security from a...