The Roots of Swedish Neutrality

Sweden's policy of neutrality was reaffirmed in the late 1940s, when Europe became divided into two hostile blocs. The primary instrument of Sweden's security policy - non participation in alliances in peacetime aiming at neutrality in the event of war - was defined over the following years.
However, Swedish neutrality has a tradition which goes much further back in history. Many of the principles essential to our country's present-day neutrality policy were in fact formulated as early as in the 1830s. During both the First and the second World Wars Sweden managed to stay out of the conflict. The lessons learnt during the Second World War were particularly fresh when Sweden decided in the late 1940s to continue with a policy of neutrality, but events of earlier periods also played a role in Swedish thinking..