<p>The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse the Swedish policy towards the Korean Conflict 1947–1953. “Swedish policy” means primarily the Swedish Government’s policy, but also the action taken by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish Defence Staff. </p><p>When the UN treated the issue of Korea in the years before the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 the Swedish government abstained from voting for reasons of principle or legality, namely that the Korean issue belonged to the peace regulations after the Second World War, in which Sweden, as an ex-neutral state, considered that it should not participate. </p><p>During the Korean War 1950–1953 the Swedish government almost consistently and in many different ways supported the US-led coalition in defence of South Korea. Although never officially mentioned, this support was given with considerable uneasiness. This uneasiness stemmed not only from fears that the neutrality policy would be compromised in the eyes of the Soviet Union but also from fears of what the reaction would be like in Sweden. The fear concerned two things: that the public support for Sweden joining the Western alliance would be strengthened, and that there would be negative reactions among their own crack units, who were regarded as neutrality supporters. Certain elements in the policy adopted by the Government have been judged as attempts to try to counteract this. </p><p>Due to its status as non-aligned country without combat troops in Korea Sweden was given a number of assignments of a mediating and bridging nature during the Korean War. The Swedish government had worries that some of those assignments would be expensive and difficult to carry out. But Sweden had an obvious interest in putting an end to the war and the government also realized that the fact that Sweden was given such missions could be used to justify the Swedish policy of neutrality. </p><p>The Korean War broke out quickly and surprisingly and was initially mobile and fluctuating with several dramatic changes in the successes in the field. Throughout the war, also when the warfare had become more static and the armistice negotiations had started, there was a latent threat of escalation towards a major war between East and West. The Swedish foreign and security policy experts in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Defence Staff could not predict the outbreak of the Korean War and all the dramatic shifts, but they had an accurate basic attitude concerning the two superpowers’ desire to avoid a world war and restrict the Korean War to Korea. </p>

The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse the Swedish policy towards the Korean Conflict 1947–1953. “Swedish policy” means primarily the Swedish Government’s policy, but also the action taken by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish Defence Staff. When the UN treated the issue of Korea in the years before the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 the Swedish government abstained from voting for reasons of principle or legality, namely that the Korean issue belonged to the peace regulations after the Second World War, in which Sweden, as an ex-neutral state, considered that it should not participate. During the Korean War 1950–1953 the Swedish government almost consistently and in many different ways supported the US-led coalition in defence of South Korea. Although never officially mentioned, this support was given with considerable uneasiness. This uneasiness stemmed not only from fears that the neutrality policy would be compromised in the eyes of the Soviet Union but also from fears of what the reaction would be like in Sweden. The fear concerned two things: that the public support for Sweden joining the Western alliance would be strengthened, and that there would be negative reactions among their own crack units, who were regarded as neutrality supporters. Certain elements in the policy adopted by the Government have been judged as attempts to try to counteract this. Due to its status as non-aligned country without combat troops in Korea Sweden was given a number of assignments of a mediating and bridging nature during the Korean War. The Swedish government had worries that some of those assignments would be expensive and difficult to carry out. But Sweden had an obvious interest in putting an end to the war and the government also realized that the fact that Sweden was given such missions could be used to justify the Swedish policy of neutrality. The Korean War broke out quickly and surprisingly and was initially mobile and fluctuating with several dramatic changes in the successes in the field. Throughout the war, also when the warfare had become more static and the armistice negotiations had started, there was a latent threat of escalation towards a major war between East and West. The Swedish foreign and security policy experts in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Defence Staff could not predict the outbreak of the Korean War and all the dramatic shifts, but they had an accurate basic attitude concerning the two superpowers’ desire to avoid a world war and restrict the Korean War to Korea.

This thesis investigates Swedish trade promotion in Lebanon from 1920 to 1975. The aim is to increase knowledge about how actors in a small open western economy tried to develop their economic interests in an emerging market characterized by great uncertainty. Here, the promising economic outlook coincided with a high degree of political instability. The study analyzes the interactions between Swedish trade related authorities, organizations and companies in their efforts to develop Swedish business interests in Lebanon: a developing country in a conflict-affected area with potentially large and emerging markets, where the cultural distance to Sweden was significant. In this study a model, which is known as the Uppsala model, forms an analytical interpretative framework for studying the actions and strategies of the trade related authorities and organizations despite the model's specific perspective on the establishment process of firms abroad. Based on the taxonomy, which is the basis of this interpretative model, this interpretative framwork has been possible to apply because of the assumed interactions between trade related authorities/organizations and companies when establishing commercial presence in new markets. The assumption is that the trade related authorities and organizations enhance for companies in various ways, while there is an economic-political interest that the state strives to reach by encouraging companies to set up business in new markets. By using this model, the events have been systematized through a historical generalization and periodization of Swedish trade promotion and organization. Added with the type of knowledge development that has taken place. In this way, the role of authorities and organizations in trade promotion and organizational build-up abroad has been highlighted. The results show that Swedish trade promotion attempts and organization in Lebanon took place in close cooperation with Swedish trade related authorities and organizations through their information inflows. In practice the companies' needs for information and assistance were reflected in the work that has been exercised by the authorities and organizations. By playing an important role in information building, escalating network positions and at the same time providing the companies with specific information, the trade related authorities and organizations became key actors in the development of Swedish trade relations with Lebanon. The study concludes that new perspectives can be obtained by including trade related authorities and organizations when using the Uppsala model in future studies. / Denna avhandling studerar svenska handelsfrämjande åtgärder i Libanon 1920-1975. Syftet är att öka kunskapen om hur aktörer i en liten öppen västekonomi försökte utveckla sina ekonomiska intressen på en ny framväxande marknad präglad av stor osäkerhet, där lovande ekonomiska utsikter sammanföll med en hög grad av politisk instabilitet. I studien analyseras samspelet mellan svenska handelsrelaterade myndigheter, organisationer och företag i deras strävan att utveckla svenska handels- och affärsintressen i Libanon: ett land som betraktas här som ett utvecklingsland i ett konfliktdrabbat område med potentiellt stora och nya marknader med ett betydande kulturellt avstånd till Sverige. I studien utgör den så kallade Uppsalamodellen den analytiska tolkningsramen för att studera myndigheternas och intresseorganisationernas agerande och strategier, trots att modellens perspektiv bygger på företagens utlandsetablering. Med utgångspunkt i den taxonomi som är grunden i modellen har denna tolkningsram varit möjlig på grund av det samspel som antas finnas mellan företag och myndigheter, särskilt när det gäller etablerandet av en affärsmässig närvaro på en ny och osäker marknad. Antaganden är att myndigheterna på olika sätt underlättar för företagen, samtidigt som det finns ett statligt ekonomisk-politiskt intresse att få företag att etablera sig på nya marknader. Med hjälp av modellen har händelseförloppen systematiserats genom en historisk generalisering och periodisering av svenska handelsfrämjande åtgärder med avseende på organisation och den typ av kunskapsuppbyggnad som skett. Därmed belyses också myndigheternas och organisationernas roll vid företagsetableringar i utlandet. Resultaten visar att företagsetableringsförsöken och organisationen av svensk handel i Libanon skedde i nära samarbete mellan svenska myndigheter och organisationer genom utbyte av information. I praktiken avspeglades företagens behov av information och hjälp i myndigheternas och organisationernas arbete. I och med att myndigheterna/organisationerna deltog i informationsuppbyggnaden, skapandet av nätverkspositioner och samtidigt förmedlade information mellan företagen var dessa betingade som centrala aktörer vid etableringen av svenska handelsförbindelser med Libanon. Studiens slutsats är att nya perspektiv gällande företagsetableringar på utländska marknader kan erhållas genom att inkludera myndigheters och organisationers agerande vid tillämpningen av Uppsala modellen i framtida studier.