Aligning the Non-Aligned: a re-interpretation of why and how Sweden was granted access to US military materiel in the early Cold War, 1948–1952

The article argues that previous research into how Sweden came to be eligible to purchase armaments in the United States in the early Cold War has misread the historical evidence. Instead of there being a change in US policy in early 1950, as has been argued by several Cold War scholars, this article states that it was the incremental changes of Sweden’s security policy that eventually made the US government view the Swedes as possible non-aligned allies in the Cold War. The difference is crucial. The Swedish adherence to the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom) embargo is a critical factor when trying to understand the perceived change in the US policy, because this was a confirmation of the Swedish consent to US hegemony in Western Europe. Furthermore, this article argues that, contrary to what prior research has assumed, it was never part of US policy to get Sweden to join the North Atlantic Treaty (NAT or NATO later). The evidence for assuming that this was ever a US policy objective is simply lacking. The article thus presents a much needed re-evaluation of US–Swedish security relations during the late 1940s and early 1950s.     

Creating the Swedish Juvenile Delinquent: criminal policy,science and institutionalization c. 1930–1970

This article discusses what I call the creation of the juvenile delinquent in the period from the 1930s to the 1970s. Making use of a theoretical understanding taken from Michel Foucault and David Garland this article shows how several elements and factors contributed to this process of which I concentrate on discussing three: the criminal political context, criminological ideas and administrative changes. These practices, including the discourse production around the young offender, led to the creation of a new category: the juvenile delinquent. What happened is understood and analyzed with the help of Foucault's central concept of governmentality. Special emphasis had been laid on investigating the role in this process of reformatory prisons and the Reformatory Prisons Board. Three of the tentative conclusions that could be drawn from the discussion are that the domination of the administrative logic of order and control over the rehabilitative logic played an important role in the creation of the juvenile delinquent; that the diagnostic practice and the scientific credibility that it was built on created a widening gap between the young offenders and ‘normal’ youths; and that the creation of the juvenile delinquent contributed to a stronger symbiosis between the social, administrative and penal bodies.     

Evaluating protein residues on Gainey phase Paleoindian stone tools

Blood protein analysis provides a method for acquiring and interpreting archaeological data bearing on human–animal relationships. The present study makes use of cross-over immunoelectrophoresis (CIEP) and a large sample of stone tools (N = 130) from an early Paleoindian site pertaining to the Gainey phase (ca. 11,200 BP) of the Midwestern USA. Results are used to interpret toolkit organization and site structure, and indicate that hafted tools with longer use-life potentialities are more likely to be associated with preserved residues than are tools of a more ad hoc or situational character. Protein residues derived from cervids are the largest category of identified samples, a result consistent with an interpretation that these animals were important first-line resources of Gainey phase populations. The identification of caribou (Rangifer sp.) is notable. Interpretations of subsistence importance, however, must be tempered by an appreciation of the possible confounding effects of tool manufacture and maintenance in early Paleoindian contexts.     

On the Left: The Russian Social Club in Early Cold War Sydney

Whilst most Russian-speaking displaced persons (DPs) settled in Australia were anti-Communist, a small number were actively left-wing. This article examines the revitalisation of Sydney’s left-wing Russian Social Club sparked by the arrival of DPs from both Europe and China. Using recently released intelligence records, it highlights the voices and activities of left-wing DPs and suggests that the impacts of state surveillance and the Petrov Affair have contributed to these politically-active DPs occupying a gap in the historical record. Further, it points to the demands the state made of migrants’ political lives during the early Cold War.     

The editor and the CIA: Herbert Tingsten and the Congress for Cultural Freedom: a symbiotic relationship

This article deals with the relations between perhaps Sweden's most influential publicist during the Cold War, the professor of political science and editor-in-chief of Sweden's largest daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter 1946–1959, Herbert Tingsten, and the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), a CIA-sponsored organisation gathering the elite of the world's non-communist leftist intellectuals, Congress for Cultural Freedom and its Swedish sub-branch called ‘Svenska kommittén för kulturens frihet’ (SKfKF). Tingsten was a professor of political science at University of Stockholm from 1935 to 1946 and then editor-in-chief of Sweden's largest daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter from 1946 to 1959. It argues that parts of Tingsten's work both as an opinion maker and as a scholar was part of a symbiotic relationship with the CCF and the SKfKF. Tingsten was the foremost propagator for the ‘end of ideology’ thesis in Sweden and the article argues that this campaign was inspired by the CCF's advancement of this idea in the 1950s and 1960s. Tingsten was personally acquainted with several CCF intellectuals and he visited several of the CCF's conferences. The article also makes the case that Tingsten helped the CCF and the SKfKF's causes and furthered their agendas in a number of ways during his time as editor-in-chief of DN. For example, Tingsten allowed the SKfKF to use DN as a platform for presenting its ideas and programmes to a broader public. The article thus shows how the CCF network of intellectuals influenced opinion making in non-aligned Sweden.