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Abstract
The main research question in this study is how ideas matter during different phases of a decision-making process. More specifically, the study examines whether principled and causal ideas influence foreign policy as roadmaps or as focal points, and if there is a difference across policy-making stages. The empirical basis for this article is an examination of whether former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme (1927–1986) primarily used his ideas as roadmaps for one of his foreign policy priorities during an early agenda-setting phase of the process, and ideas as focal points for one of his foreign policy priorities during a policy-making phase. The two cases studied are (1) Sweden's decision to say no to European Economic Community membership in the early 1970s and (2) Sweden's decision to say yes to support liberation movements in Africa in the late 1960s. The main conclusion is that Palme used his ideas as roadmaps during all phases of the decision-making process, and that ideas are necessary to guide and frame all types of issues during all stages of the decision-making process.
Acknowledgements
I thank Daniel Berlin, Ulf Bjereld, Marie Demker, Henrik Oscarsson and Ann Towns for their valuable comments on this article. I have also benefited from the comments from various commentators at different conferences where the text has been presented at various stages of the working process. I also thank Emma Andersson, Inger Lindberg and Veronica Norell for their helpful assistance. Finally, I also thank my anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.
Notes
1 Kaarbo, ‘Foreign Policy Analysis’; Patrick Houghton, ‘Reinvigorating the Study of Foreign Policy Decision Making’.
2 Kaarbo, ‘Foreign Policy Analysis’.
3 Legro, Rethinking the World.
4 George, ‘The “Operational Code”’; Holsti, ‘The Belief System and National Images’; Jervis, Perception and Misperception in International Politics; Larson, Anatomy of Mistrust; Goldgeier and Tetlock, ‘Psychology and International Relations’.
5 Berlin, Green Power Generators; Betsill and Corell, NGO Diplomacy.
6 Foong Khong, Analogies at War.
7 Sylvan and Thorson, ‘Ontologies, Problem Representation’; Sylvan and Voss, Problem Representation; Keren and Sylvan, International Intervention; Sylvan, Grove and Martinson, ‘Problem Representation and Conflict Dynamics’.
8 It is my conviction that too much focus has been placed on crises and extraordinary foreign policy decision-making.
9 The concept of framing has primarily been developed within the field of media research. The framing process involves a practice of selecting, emphasizing, excluding and including certain elements when telling a story. Familiar news frames are often used to understand new phenomena, and sometimes new frames are developed to understand both new and old phenomena. The literature on framing acknowledges it as both a cognitive and a tactic construction; see Norris, Kern and Just, Framing Terrorism.
10 Sikkink, Ideas and Institutions; Goldstein and Keohane, Ideas and Foreign Policy; Checkel, Ideas and International Political Change; Larson, Anatomy of Mistrust; Berman, The Social Democratic Moment; Rosati, ‘The Power of Human Cognition’; McDermott, ‘Arms Control and the First Reagan Administration’; Parsons, ‘Showing Ideas as Causes’; Legro, Rethinking the World; Ozkececi-Taner, ‘The Impact of Institutionalized Ideas’.
11 Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict; Haas, The Ideological Origins, 12–25.
12 Goldstein and Keohane, Ideas and Foreign Policy.
13 My overall impression is that the research following Goldstein and Keohane has tended to focus on ideas that are institutionalized in some ways and on how ideas affect different types of institutions, see also Blyth, ‘The Transformation of the Swedish Model’.
14 Goldstein and Keohane, Ideas and Foreign Policy, 12.
15 Ibid., 9.
16 Haas, The Ideological Origins of Great Power Politics, 39.
17 Goldstein and Keohane, Ideas and Foreign Policy, 12.
18 Nicholson, ‘Individuals and their Influence’.
19 Laclau and Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy.
20 Oscarsson, Den svenska partirymden; Östberg, 1968 när allting var i rörelse; Ekengren, Olof Palme och utrikespolitiken.
21 Goldmann, Berglund and Sjöstedt, Democracy and Foreign Policy; Nicholson, ‘Individuals and their Influence on the International System’.
22 Olof Palme's extensive archive is situated in Stockholm, Sweden at the Labour Movement Archive and Library (Arbetarrörelsens arkiv och bibliotek). I have been lucky to have had very good assistance among the library personnel. Stellan Andersson, the man who organized Olof Palme's archive, has been of great help during many weeks in the archive. Gunnela Björk and Kjell Östberg have also been most helpful during the empirical work.
23 The interviews were rather open, where I introduced the overarching issues and the persons were allowed to speak quite freely. If they left the issue at hand, I posed a new question to make them return to our main discussion.
24 Malmborg, Den ståndaktiga nationalstaten.
25 Bjereld, Johansson and Molin, Sveriges säkerhet och världens fred.
26 For a thorough discussion on Sweden's relations with the West European countries after World War II, please see Bjereld, Johansson and Molin, Sveriges säkerhet och världens fred; Lundgren Rydén, Ett svenskt dilemma.
27 Erlander, 1960-talet; Stråth, ‘The Swedish Image of Europe as the Other’.
28 Ekengren, Olof Palme och utrikespolitiken, 84–95.
29 Ibid., 90–98.
30 Prime Minister Erlander, on the other hand, was never comfortable when forced to communicate in languages other than Swedish. He often left those meetings to Palme, who enjoyed the opportunities they presented.
31 Ekengren, Olof Palme och utrikespolitiken, 120.
32 Olof Palme's archive, Series 2.4.0, Volume 18, Interview with Danish Television October 23, 1970; Olof Palme's archive, Series 2.4.0, Volume 19, Speech at The Foreign Press Association Luncheon, April 7, 1970; Olof Palme's archive, Series 2.4.0, Volume 20, Speech at ‘Svenska mässan’, May 6, 1970.
33 Ibid.
34 Olof Palme's archive, Series 2.4.0, Volume 18, Interview with Danish Television, October 23, 1970; Olof Palme's archive, Series 2.4.0, Volume 22, Speech at a Post-election Meeting in Blå hallen, September 25, 1970; The Social Democratic parliamentary group, Protocol, Volume A2:1112, April 21, 1970; Olof Palme's archive, Speech, Public, 1971, Speech at the Conference ‘Solidarity at home and abroad’, August 28, 1971.
35 See, for example, Olof Palme's archive, Appendix, Tolls, 1967, Volume A 11:001, Sweden and the EEC, TL/KL, October 15, 1970; Olof Palme's archive, Series 2.4.0, Volume 20, Speech in Helsingborg, August 30, 1970; Olof Palme's archive, Articles, Interviews in Il Giori, May 15, 1970, in the Daily Telegraph, April 7, 1970.
36 Ibid.
37 Ekengren, Olof Palme och utrikespolitiken,108ff.
38 Olof Palme's archive, Series 2.4.0, Volume 18, Interview with Danish Television, October 23, 1970; Olof Palme's archive, Series 2.4.0, Volume 22, Speech at a post-election meeting in Blå hallen, September 25, 1970; The Social Democratic parliamentary group, Protocol, Volume A2:1112, April 21, 1970; Olof Palme's archive, Speech, Public, 1971, Speech at the conference ‘Solidarity at home and abroad’, August 28, 1971.
39 Olof Palme's archive, Appendix, Tolls, 1967, Volume A 11:001, The EEC debate, November 6, 1970.
40 The political opposition from the right, however, displayed a more positive attitude concerning the possibilities of EEC membership despite the new developments within the EEC. They did not interpret the sovereignty idea in the same way as the Social Democrats did.
41 Ekengren, Olof Palme och utrikespolitiken, 125 and onwards.
42 Olof Palme's archive, Appendix, Tolls, Volume A 11:001, Speech to ‘Stockholms arbetarkommun’, March 18, 1971.
43 It is obvious that increasing ideological differences among Swedish politicians led to an increasing belief in the inevitability of conflict, and that different ideas were the grounds for this ‘hostility’. This is similar to Haas's findings, even though he examines increasing ideological differences among different state leaders, Haas, The Ideological Origins of Great Power Politics, 211–20.
44 Ekengren, Olof Palme och utrikespolitiken, 142.
45 Bjereld, Johansson and Molin, Sveriges säkerhet och världens fred.
46 Demker, Sverige och Algeriets frigörelse.
47 Bjereld, ‘Sweden: Critic or Mediator?’; Östberg, När vinden vände.
48 Bjereld, Johansson and Molin, Sveriges säkerhet och världens fred.
49 Östberg, I takt med tiden.
50 Ekengren, Olof Palme och utrikespolitiken, 156–62.
51 Ibid., 168–73; Östberg, När vinden vände.
52 Olof Palme's archive, Speech, Public, 1953–1957, Volume 2.4.0:005, Palme's speech at ‘Broderskaparnas kongress’ in Gävle, August 12, 1965; Olof Palme's archive, Speech, Public, 1965, Volume 2.4.0:006, ‘Speech at the UN day’ in Linköping; Olof Palme's archive, Ordered by subject, Volume 4.2:76, Liberation Movements in South Africa, August 24, 1971; Olof Palme's archive, Articles, 1967, Volume 2.3:005, Aftonbladet, September 17, 1967, Olof Palme's archive, Speech, Volume 2.7:004, Speech in Storlien, February 2, 1970.
53 Ekengren, Olof Palme och utrikespolitiken, 212–16; Östberg, När vinden vände.
54 Ekengren, Olof Palme och utrikespolitiken, 148–54.
55 Olof Palme's archive, Speech, Public, 1953–1957, Volume 2.4.0:005, Palme's speech at ‘Broderskaparnas kongress’ in Gävle, August 12, 1965 Olof Palme's archive, Speech, Public, 1965, Volume 2.4.0:006, ‘Speech at the UN day’ in Linköping; Olof Palme's archive, Ordered by subject, Volume 4.2:76, Liberation Movements in Southern Africa, August 24, 1971; Olof Palme's archive, Articles, 1967, Volume 2.3:005, Aftonbladet, September 17, 1967; Olof Palme's archive, Speech, Volume 2.7:004, Speech in Storlien, February 2, 1970.
56 Ibid.
57 Olof Palme's archive, Newspaper, Volume, 5.2:012, Expressen, March 24, 1966; Olof Palme's archive, Speech, Public, Volume 2.4.0:081, Speech at ‘Statsanställdas kongress’, September 21, 1977.
58 Bjereld, Johansson and Molin, Sveriges säkerhet och världens fred; Östberg, När vinden vände.
59 Olof Palme's archive, Speech, Public, 1970, Volume 2.4.0:020, Foreign policy debate in the parliament, April 29, 1970.
60 Ekengren, Olof Palme och utrikespolitiken, 204–8.
61 Ibid., 212.
62 Östberg, När vinden vände.
63 We can once again compare this conclusion with Haas's results. He concluded that state leaders found ways to cooperate when they shared ideas. Since my study contains a comparison within a state it is interesting to note that shared ideas (as well as not shared ideas, as in the EEC issue) led to efforts from the politicians to distance themselves from each other. See Haas, The Ideological Origins of Great Power Politics, 11, 211–14. The domestic arena might be somewhat different from the international, since both distant and close ideas led to increasing ‘hostilities’ between the parties.
64 Malmborg, Den ståndaktiga nationalstaten; Bjereld, Johansson and Molin, Sveriges säkerhet och världens fred.
65 Bjereld, Johansson and Molin, Sveriges säkerhet och världens fred.
66 Östberg, När vinden vände.
