Dealing with a High Technology Vulnerability Trap: The USA, Sweden and Industry

In: Cooperation and conflict: journal of the Nordic International Studies Association, Band 28, Heft 3, S. 303-328

Abstract

How the Swedish social democratic government & Swedish industrialists responded to the security policy challenge resulting from the US high-technology export control offensive of the early 1980s is discussed as an illustration of the use of different security-enhancing strategies by a small industrial state in a setting of adversarial interdependence. The persistent weight of interstate conflict within interdependence is illustrated, along with the webs of transnational relations affecting the governing capacity of states. Informal collaboration between industry & state in Sweden & the complementary lack of domestic debate over the technology control issue exemplify the traditional Swedish consensus-oriented style of handling critical policy questions. Sweden was able to adjust policies in ways acceptable from both international neutrality & domestic politics perspectives; a (trans)national mobilization strategy was exploited. 44 References. Adapted from the source document.