The hidden rationality of Sweden's policy of neutrality during the Cold War

Autor:	Robert Dalsjö
Rok vydání:	2013
Předmět:	History Peacetime Politics Dissenting opinion Political economy Political science Law Political Science and International Relations Cold war Rationality Neutrality
Zdroj:	Cold War History. 14:175-194
ISSN:	1743-7962 1468-2745
DOI:	10.1080/14682745.2013.765865
Popis:	The long-dominant view of Swedish neutrality policy during the Cold War holds that it aimed to reduce tension in peacetime and to keep the country out of a new major war. The main dissenting view is that the policy primarily served peacetime purposes, including domestic politics, and that it would not have worked in a war. Sweden would then either have been attacked by the USSR because it was a Western country in its path of attack, or it would have been drawn in on the allied side because of its cooperation with the West, including tolerating overflights by allied bombers. This article presents a third perspective, namely that Sweden's leaders in the 1950s understood that neutrality would probably fail in wartime, but that they aimed to stay out of the violent initial nuclear exchange. This conclusion is supported by evidence hitherto overlooked in the existing research.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_________::d5a22cb937f7d3f0f6c355ea2d50b068 https://doi.org/10.1080/14682745.2013.765865 Zobrazit plný text záznamu