I SVERIGE, I NÄROMRÅDET OCH UTOM NÄROMRÅDET En kvalitativ analys av Sveriges försvarspolitiska beslutstagande som en småstat under 00-talet

Sammanfattning: In this thesis the topic of Swedish defense policy is examined. Sweden has a long history of neutrality or of “non-alignment”. Since the end of the Cold War Sweden has undergone a drastic change in this defense policy. After many decades of gradually growing closer to NATO Sweden finally submitted an application to join in 2022 after the start of Russia’s war of aggression toward Ukraine. A very important step on the path to this decision was the issuing of the Solidarity Declaration in 2009. In this declaration Sweden promised to come to the defense of any EU or Nordic country that needed it. I use neoclassical realism and europeanization to form a theoretical framework through which I explore the causes of this Solidarity Declaration which I think has thus far been underexplored. I use material that mostly comes from the government itself and is contemporary to the Declaration. I conclude that both neoclassical realism and europeanization form important explanations to the Solidarity Declaration. I also find that rhetoric that embraces europeanization may actually come from a more realist reasoning. I conclude that the same framework could be used for future analysis of Swedish foreign policy.