End of an era
(2023) STVM25 20231Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- On the 24th of February 2022, Russia initiated a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. About a quarter of a year later, Sweden decided to abandon its long standing foreign policy doctrine of being militarily non-aligned in favor of joining NATO. Given the sequencing of these events, the common perception is that the 2022 invasion was the sole reason behind this significant decision.
Taking a long-term perspective into consideration, this thesis posits that this is too narrow an understanding of the policy process. It fails to consider that Russia initiated a similar campaign in 2014, which had a different effect. By applying the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and its theories of policy change to the annual foreign policy debates between... (More) - On the 24th of February 2022, Russia initiated a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. About a quarter of a year later, Sweden decided to abandon its long standing foreign policy doctrine of being militarily non-aligned in favor of joining NATO. Given the sequencing of these events, the common perception is that the 2022 invasion was the sole reason behind this significant decision.
Taking a long-term perspective into consideration, this thesis posits that this is too narrow an understanding of the policy process. It fails to consider that Russia initiated a similar campaign in 2014, which had a different effect. By applying the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and its theories of policy change to the annual foreign policy debates between 2008 and 2022, the present study seeks to explain why Sweden decided to abandon its doctrine of military non-participation in 2022.
In short, the findings reveal that major policy change in Sweden’s foreign policy approach occurred partly because joining NATO was in line with the policy beliefs of the Social Democrats. Moreover, both cases of Russian aggression against Ukraine facilitated this step by causing a hurting stalemate in which the SAP made the decision to abandon the doctrine of non-alignment. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9134077
- author
- Ström, Lovisa LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- STVM25 20231
- year
- 2023
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Foreign policy, Sweden-NATO relations, Advocacy Coalition Framework, policy change, Russo-Ukrainian War
- language
- English
- id
- 9134077
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-15 11:34:41
- date last changed
- 2025-08-15 11:34:41
@misc{9134077,
abstract = {{On the 24th of February 2022, Russia initiated a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. About a quarter of a year later, Sweden decided to abandon its long standing foreign policy doctrine of being militarily non-aligned in favor of joining NATO. Given the sequencing of these events, the common perception is that the 2022 invasion was the sole reason behind this significant decision.
Taking a long-term perspective into consideration, this thesis posits that this is too narrow an understanding of the policy process. It fails to consider that Russia initiated a similar campaign in 2014, which had a different effect. By applying the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and its theories of policy change to the annual foreign policy debates between 2008 and 2022, the present study seeks to explain why Sweden decided to abandon its doctrine of military non-participation in 2022.
In short, the findings reveal that major policy change in Sweden’s foreign policy approach occurred partly because joining NATO was in line with the policy beliefs of the Social Democrats. Moreover, both cases of Russian aggression against Ukraine facilitated this step by causing a hurting stalemate in which the SAP made the decision to abandon the doctrine of non-alignment.}},
author = {{Ström, Lovisa}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{End of an era}},
year = {{2023}},
}