On Sweden And The Origin Of The Nordic Cold War

Setting the Cold War as the background, this thesis expounds the influence of the Sweden to theformation of the Nordic Cold War pattern from1945to1949. The paper try to reveal the formingprocedure of Cold War pattern of the Nordic as a whole by teasing out the history of the raising ofthe Nordic "bridge" policy in the early postwar, the experiment to establish Scandinavian defensealliance, and the formal formation of Nordic balance.The first chapter elaborated the research status at home and abroad on topic of the paper, andintroduced the significance and the methods of the research.The second chapter introduced briefly Sweden’s neutrality traditions before and during theSecond World War. Due to northern Europe before the war relatively far away from the centre of theinternational pattern, so have a neutral tradition. But the plight of the Nordic countries in World WarTwo is widely divergent, Denmark and Norway was occupied, only Sweden remained neutral.Eventually the result also has a direct impact on the post-war path choice of these countries.The third chapter introduced the strategy pattern in Nordic region in the early years of thepost-war. Nordic postwar pattern of the cold war is not yet fully formed at first. Basing on theprinciple of neutrality, the Nordic countries try to act as a bridge of communication and exchangebetween east and west, so far away from power, which is the policy of "bridge building". But withthe start of the cold war, the world divided into east and west camps. Their relationships becameincreasingly tense, and they became hard to communicate and exchange. So the Nordic "bridgingpolicy" didn’t get the identity without the powers acknowledge.The forth chapter introduced the situation of the Nordic region in the early years of the cold war.With the development of the cold war, the camp selection problem is in front of the Nordic countries.In the face of the United States’ invitation to join NATO, the Nordic neutralism made their last effort:Sweden proposed neutral Scandinavian defense alliance, but this attempt was failure because of theblock and opposition from the United States. Finally for the sake of its own interests, Norway,Iceland, and Denmark choose to join NATO, whereas Finland and the Soviet Union signed afriendship treaty of mutual aid. Only Sweden sticks to the path of the completely neutral. Ultimately,there formed the pattern of the northern Europe balance during the era of the Cold War.The fifth chapter and conclusion interpreted the reason of the balance of the Nordic and the roleof Sweden in it. With the Denmark, Norway and Iceland joining NATO, Sweden remaining his armed neutral, and Finland taking the position of pro-Soviet neutral, there formed interdependentpattern of Nordic "balance". This played supplementary role for the pattern of international cold war.Although the Nordic countries choose the road is not the same, but they actually remainedcooperation as a community of interests, so they played buffer and bridge action in the West and theEast, and they played certain role in the process and the ending of the Cold War.