Cultural affinity and small-state solidarity. Sweden and global north-south relations in the 1970s

Book chapter, 2022

This chapter analyses how Sweden, as a small neutral state with a high-profile agenda vis-à-vis the decolonising Global South, responded to the deeply entangled economic, environmental and political crisis of the 1970s and the rise of the non-aligned “Third World”. It provides a pilot study of how Swedish perceptions of Global North–South relations were reflected in two different spheres: public diplomacy and knowledge production. In addressing Sweden’s envisioned role in the North–South dialogue, these debates evolved around two partially separate rhetorics of “cultural affinity” and “small-state solidarity”. We argue that these rhetorics go some way to complement our understanding of the logic of Swedish (social democratic) commitment to North–South relations, beyond the explanatory categories of either altruism or realism.