Download Free Neutrality And Identity The Social Origins Of Swedish Neutrality Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Neutrality And Identity The Social Origins Of Swedish Neutrality and write the review.

The end of the Cold War and the ‘War on Terror’ has signalled a shift in the security policies of all states. It has also led to the reconsideration of the policy of neutrality, and what being neutral means in the present age. This book examines the conceptualisation of neutrality from the Peloponnesian War to today, uncovering how neutrality has been a neglected and misunderstood subject in International Relations (IR) theory and politics. By rethinking neutrality through constructivism, this book argues that neutrality is intrinsically linked to identity. Using Sweden as a case study, it links identity, sovereignty, internationalism and solidarity to the debates about Swedish neutrality today and how neutrality has been central to Swedish identity and its worldview. It also examines the challenges to Swedish neutrality and neutrality broadly, in terms of European integration, globalisation, the decline of the state and sovereignty, and new threats to security, such as international terrorism, arguing that the norms and values of neutrality can be reworked to contribute to a more cosmopolitan international order.
Since the end of the Cold War, and particularly in the post-9/11 international environment, neutrality has been conceptualized as a problematic subject. With the end of bipolarity, neutrality as a foreign and security policy lost much of its justification, and in the ongoing "War on Terror", no state, according to the Bush Administration, can be neutral. However, much of this debate has gone unnoticed in IR literature. This book, newly available in paperback, examines the conceptualization of neutrality from the Peloponnesian War to the present day, uncovering how neutrality has been a neglected and misunderstood subject in IR theory and politics. By rethinking neutrality through constructivism, this book argues that neutrality is intrinsically linked to identity. Using Sweden as a case study, it links identity, sovereignty, internationalism, and solidarity to the debates about Swedish neutrality today and how neutrality has been central to Swedish identity and its world-view.
The successful maintenance of peace since 1814 made neutrality a widely popular doctrine in Sweden. Rather than a security policy in the strict sense, it has become a cornerstone of Swedish national identity. Yet, in the past decade the neutrality tradition has been called into question. What is meant by neutrality? Has Sweden ever been neutral? This book analyses the emergence, institutionalisation and reassessment of neutrality, of the notion of peace as a national good, from the sixteenth century to the present debate on NATO membership.
The Handbook provides a broad introduction to Swedish politics, and how Sweden's political system and policies have evolved over the past few decades.