# Sweden mulls joining NATO



## CougarKing (9 Sep 2015)

Sweden mulls joining NATO; perhaps the recent Russia sub scare that plagued both Sweden and Finland a few months ago has finally shocked the Swedes out of neutrality.

LA Times



> *Sweden rethinking neutrality amid fear of Russian aggression*
> Sweden's 200-year-old posture of military neutrality has been eroding amid European integration, and a perceived new threat from Russia has politicians now talking about abandoning it altogether and joining NATO.
> 
> Swedish forces have been taking part in peacekeeping, military exercises and some NATO-led missions since the 1990s as the country has joined regional and international forces to reduce its vulnerability in a still-volatile region more than two decades after the Cold War ended.
> ...


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## daftandbarmy (11 Sep 2015)

Sweden has never been fully 'neutral' anyways. It's one of those quaint myths we like to propagate to make ourselves feel good - for some strange reason....

The (Not So) Neutrals of World War II

By ROGER COHEN  

Published: January 26, 1997
    
PARIS—  WHEN the world was simpler, divided during a bitter peace between the forces of good on this side of the Iron Curtain and the ''Evil Empire'' beyond it, the concept of ''neutrality'' in Europe seemed as clearly delineated and reassuring as the Swiss flag itself. The neutral state stood in the middle, between the globe's conflicting forces. It connoted a certain decency, cold and formal perhaps, but incompatible with the concealment of Nazi plunder or other skulduggery. 

But neutrality, like virtue, is seldom absolute. Applied to the acts of a state during several years of war, the adjective ''neutral'' is almost inevitably inadequate. Wars are hell. But they are also opportunity. They are generally long, made up of hard, grinding days that do not naturally nourish man's nobler instincts. 

The neutral states of World War II -- among them Switzerland, Sweden and Portugal -- composed their neutrality day after day. The Swiss did not want the Germans in Geneva but did not have an army that could stop them from getting there. The Portuguese, led by a fascist, were worried about what the British might do to their African colonies. The Swedes needed German coal and the Germans needed Swedish iron ore. Such equations -- involving geography, economic interest, historical ties, strategic aims and emotional sympathies -- defined policy. Survival mattered above all. 

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/26/weekinreview/the-not-so-neutrals-of-world-war-ii.html


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