During the 1960s and 1970s an increased interest in Native Americans can be seen in Sweden, e.g. through the establishment of organizations such as the Indian Club of Sweden. The aim of this thesis is to study the portrayal of Native Americans and its role through Albin Widén, a Swedish author, ethnologist and member of the Indian Club, and his non-fictional works on the Swedish migration to America, Swedish-America and Swedish contacts with Native Americans. The study is divided into four parts. The first part looks at the portrayal of the Native Americans in Widén’s writings, in comparison with Euro-Americans’ and Europeans’ traditional stereotypic images of a good and a bad Indian. The second part examines how Widén represents the contacts between Swedes in America and the Native Americans. The purpose of the third part of the analysis is to investigate Widén’s interest in Native Americans. Finally, the thesis focuses on the possible role of the portrayals of Indians as a counterpart in the creation and upholding of a Swedish identity.

From an academic perspective, the discipline of war studies is still underdeveloped. There is a lack of metatheoretical research compared to other social science research, despite the fact that it faces the same ontological and epistemological challenges as other sciences. Furthermore, a lack of understanding different phenomena diminishes precision in language and thus also the ability to stand on the shoulders of giants and contribute to the common body of knowledge. The aim of this study was to contribute to an increased understanding of the phenomenon of sea power in war studies. Hence, this study, based on Hulterström & Widén's philosophical and metatheoretical theory on combat, sought to answer the following questions: (1) How can different views on the phenomenon of sea power in the field of naval theory be categorized? (2) How can different perspectives of the phenomenon of sea power in the field of naval theory be understood? Firstly, the results of the study show that different views on the phenomenon of sea power can be categorized using the three perspectives: Brian Crisher & Mark Souva's view of sea power as a physical perspective, Geoffrey Till’s as a social perspective and Jacob Børresen’s as a human-centered perspective. Secondly, the results of this study show that sea power, like combat, changes character and significance depending on the perspective of a theorist. On the basis of these results, one conclusion is that Hulterström & Widén’s theory is fruitful for the analysis and categorization of phenomena other than combat. Additionally, by conceptualizing different perspectives, the author’s modified analysis tool can be seen as new way to approach the phenomenon of sea power.