ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the development and character of the Swedish policy of neutrality and its significance for Sweden's role in international disarmament and arms control efforts. It deals with neutrality, its background and conditions, the second with disarmament and arms control and introduces to some essential questions related to neutrality. The chapter also deals with a brief historical outline of Sweden's role as a neutral and not-aligned country. Sweden's past as much as its present illustrates the importance of geopolitical or strategic conditions for the foreign policy options of a country. The most important question, apart from security—to be aligned or not-aligned, to be defended by others also or to rely on self-defense only—was economic cooperation. The role of a small actor in the disarmament game—however active and ambitious—depends on a number of factors. The memory of the frustrating disarmament conferences between the Wars also made Swedish delegates weary of calls for global disarmament conferences.
