ABSTRACT
Although Sweden declared itself neutral at the outbreak of World War II, it did not observe a strict policy of neutrality. Concessions were made: to Germany at the beginning of the war, to the Allies when the Axis Powers’ grip on Europe started to recede. This approach to neutrality has been labelled by researchers as ‘small state-realism’. This chapter examines and challenges the concept of ‘small-state realism’ which is still often used to describe Sweden’s neutral stance during the war. While there was undeniably a degree of realism in Sweden’s neutral stance between 1939 and 1945, the chapter stresses that the country’s humanitarian aid policy continued after the war, which indicates its longstanding commitment to liberal values and international cooperation.
