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The article discusses the African state, using Michael Mann's theory of state formation as a starting point. Mann describes state formation as a process through which society is gradually "caged in" by the state, establishing the state as the highest political authority & the final arbiter of conflict within its territory. I argue that African states have been unable to "cage in" their societies. On the one hand, this means that politics does not only consist in struggles about control over the state or the content of state politics. Instead, the state's right to formulate laws & policies that are binding for society as a whole is challenged. On the other hand, since the state is unable to control its borders, interstate relations also take a different form. Conflicts that start as civil wars tend to spread across borders, without any of the affected states being able to prevent it. As a result, the distinction between the internal & the external becomes blurred. 28 References. Adapted from the source document.

Investigations carried out over the course of the last decade have revealed that during much of the Cold War, Sweden espoused a Janus-like policy in which there stood an open non-alignment & neutrality doctrine alongside a secret arrangement to cooperate with Western powers in the event of a Soviet invasion or a European war. This article focuses on what is here suggested to be a series of attempts to rewrite or edit this particular phase of Swedish political history, given the incompatibility of the two stances that Sweden assumed during this period. The author treats some of the highly controversial Swedish policies concerning alignment with the West, in particular with the United States & NATO. References. C. Brunski