Sweden and the Sleeping Beauty of Europe: A theory testing case study of Sweden's path into, and current perceptions of, PESCO

Sammanfattning

Sweden joined the EU defence framework Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) upon its inception at the end of 2017. With its tradition of scepticism towards EU defence integration and history of non-alignment this was a significant step for Sweden. This thesis will follow earlier analyses of the EUs defence cooperation and tests Sweden’s membership against the theory of Liberal Intergovernmentalism (LI). With data provided by elite interviews with politicians, civil servants and experts, supplemented by official documents, this theory testing case study analysis traces Sweden’s path into PESCO and its current engagement along the analytical framework of LI. National Preference Formation, Interstate Bargaining and Institutional Choice as well as the Outcomes are traced throughout the development, concluding that LI provides a strong but not all encompassing theoretical lens for the initial decision of Sweden's entry into PESCO. The framework struggles to explain the current engagements beyond the initial bargaining outcomes. Rival angles on European Integration were found to account for some of LIs explanatory weaknesses. Approaching single-country studies or European Defence Integration with a more holistic theoretical approach in the future might therefore more accurately capture the nuances of “high politics” better than LI can do on its own.