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Since 1 have been touring Scandi–
navia, 1have heard of sorne Norwe–
gian resentment about Swedish
neutrality during World War 11, in
spite of the fact that the Swedish
people did provide a refuge for the
Danish and the Norwegian people
during World War 11 to train militari–
ly for whenever liberation would
come. Could you comment on this
so-called Norwegian resentment
and secondly on neutrality as a
whole? ls .neutrality practica! in
this nuclear world we live in
today?
One could argue that the policy
of neutrality is not a very beroic
position to take. lt's obvious that
quite a few in Denmark and Nor–
way are grateful for the possibility
the Swedish neutrality gave them
during World War II. On the
other hand it's obvious that quite
a few in Norway and Denmark
still have uneasy feelings when it
comes to Sweden letting the Ger–
mans pass through from Denmark
to Norway. So there are pros and
cons when it comes to Swedish
behavior during World War Il.
When you look at the neutrality
policy today I think one has to
remind oneself of a few things.
One is that Swedish neutrality is a
fact of life and is something that
both the superpowers have ad–
justed to. Any change in that pol–
icy will create difficulties. On its
own merits stability in the north–
ern part of Europe is better pre–
served by Sweden being a neutral
country. That means that we have
a northern neutral zone between
the N ATO countries and the
Warsaw Pact countries, which has
proved itself during the past 20
years to be useful. So there, in the
balance, even if the policy of neu–
trality is, as l said, not very hero–
ic, I think it is useful not only to
the Swedes but to the entire
northern European area.
Sweden has maintained a fairly
strong standing army and civil
defense force since the time of
World War 11. She has also sent
her diplomats to the tour corners
of the earth as potential peace–
makers and international civil
servants. What do you think Swe–
den has contributed to the world
in this area of peacemaking?
April 1984
Without a doubt the policy of
neutrality is from' a purely eco–
nomic point of view a very costly
policy. But we cannot hope for
help from anybody else. If some–
body decides not to respect the
Swedish policy of neutrality, we
must know that we can defend
ourselves without help from any–
body abroad. That is the reason
why Sweden needs to have a
defense which is stronger than a
comparable country when it
comes .to size of population.
The policy of neutrality is a
majar reason for Sweden's possibil–
ity to act internationally as peace–
maker or mediator-though one
should not overestimate the poten–
tiality of a small country to do such
things. Whether you can create
peace in a particular region is to
sorne extent dependent on media–
tion efforts, but basically it depends
on more basic reasons than that.
Swed~n's
majar international
"Swedish neutrality
is a fact of life and is
something that both
the superpowers have
adjusted
to . .. stability in the
northern part of
Europe is better
preserved by Sweden
being a neutral
country."
-Per Unckel
achievements are within that
framework.
1 hesitate to pick one specific
activity save our readiness to stand
behind the world organization to
do what we can, even if it's small,
to make the world organization a
platform for communication. And
too, when t he Secretary General
of the U.N. so asks, be ready even
to send troops to areas where the
world organization thinks they
will be useful. This general atti–
tude and interest in the United
Nations is our majar achievement.
There has been political, eco–
nomic, social and cultural cooper–
ation between Scandinavian coun–
tries, i .e. a common set of Nordic
values. Are you satisfied with the
progress in economic and social
relations between Scandinavian
countries?
If you compare the integration
in the Nordic area with the inte–
gration in other areas of the
world, 1 think one has to be satis–
fied. Peoples i n this part of
Europe are very clase to each
other, and we have entered into a
phase in N ordic cooperation
where quite a few of the issues are
being dealt with in a very infor–
mal way. That is the sign that
relations have matured.
On the other hand
i
f you look
upon the Nordic integration from
the point of view of your own
wishes and your own visions, my
vision is for still closer cooperation.
Not the least in the economic field
where these countries are seen, one
by one, too small to be a majar
factor in the world economy. But
together we are quite a substantial
market and have access to quite
extensive knowledge, which could
be used way more effectively than
it is at present. There is much more
to do even if we are far ahead of
quite a few other regions in the
world.
1met a Swedish buslnessman on
the train last night with business
connections around the world. He
said Sweden is ess.entially a capi–
talist country. Perhaps it has an
unusual blend of sociallsm mixed
with it, but would you say that
that's true in splte of its socialist
reputatlon?
That is a more difficult ques–
t ion than you might realize.
If
you
look upon Sweden from a classic
ideological point of view such as
tbe share of state ownership, it is
without doubt a capitalist country.
The vast majority of Swedish
firms are owned by prívate per–
sons.
If
on the other hand you look at
Sweden from the point of view of
how much does the government
control in practice, you might
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