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Unity and Divergence: Scandinavian Internationalism, 1914–19211

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2008

KAREN GRAM-SKJOLDAGER  and
ØYVIND TØNNESSON
KAREN GRAM-SKJOLDAGER
Affiliation:
Institutt for Historie og Områdestudier, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Århus C, Denmark; e-mail: [email protected].
ØYVIND TØNNESSON
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, N-0315 Blindern, Norway, e-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) is frequently seen as a democratic ‘island of peace’ in international politics and the three states are seen as ardent supporters of an ‘international community’ under the umbrella of the United Nations as well as its predecessor, the League of Nations. This article seeks to challenge this idealised, unitary conception of Scandinavian peace politics by exploring how different strands of internationalism, as transnational phenomena, developed from the outbreak of the First World War until the three states became members of the League. Initially, that development was more or less independent of official foreign policy. The article explains how and to what degree new internationalist ideas were eventually merged with traditional neutralist Scandinavian foreign policies.

Unité et divergence: internationalisme scandinave, 1914–1921

En matière de relations internationales, la Scandinavie est souvent considérée comme une ‘île de paix’ démocratique. Les trois états soutiennent ardemment une ‘communauté internationale’ que ce soit sous l'ONU ou sous l'empire de la SDN. Cet article cherche à remettre en question cette conception idéalisée et homogène de la politique de paix scandinave en analysant comment différentes tendances d'internationalisme, en tant que phénomènes transnationaux, se sont développés depuis le début de la premiere guerre mondiale jusqu'à ce que les trois états entrent à la SDN. Ce développement était au début plus ou moins indépendant de la politique extérieure officielle. Cet article explique comment et dans quelle mesure les nouvelles idées internationalistes ont fusionné avec la politique scandinave traditionnelle de la neutralité.

Einheit und divergenz: skandinavischer internationalismus, 1914–1921

Die skandinavischen Länder erscheinen oft als demokratische ‘Insel des Friedens’ in den internationalen Beziehungen, und die drei skandinavischen Staaten (Dänemark, Schweden und Norwegen) unterstützen bis heute internationale Organisationen, wie die Vereinten Nationen und ihren Vorgänger, den Völkerbund. Dieser Artikel möchte dieses idealistische und einheitliche Bild einer skandinavischen Friedenspolitik differenzieren, indem er wichtige Stränge von ‘Internationalismus’ in seinen transnationalen Bezügen untersucht und sie in die Frühgeschichte des Völkerbundes einbettet. Zunächst fanden diese Entwicklungen ohne direkte Einwirkungen offizieller Außenpolitik statt. Dieser Artikel erklärt, wie und zu welchem Grade neue internationalisische Ideen in den drei skandinavischen Staaten in der Zeit unmittelbar nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg Fuß fasten und sich so mit eher traditionellen außenpolitischen Vorstellungen verbanden.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 17 , Issue 3: A Peaceful Europe? Negotiating Peace in the Twentieth Century , August 2008 , pp. 301 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

2 Cf. Goldmann, Kjell, The Logic of Internationalism: Coercion and Accommodation (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1994), 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 For a recent interpretation of this kind, see Archer, Clive and Joenniemi, Pertti, eds., The Nordic Peace (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003)Google Scholar. ‘Scandinavia’ consists of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Today ‘Norden’ denotes a broader group of Nordic countries including Finland and Iceland. Although the two concepts were used synonymously in the period under investigation (denoting Norway, Sweden and Denmark), this article uses the concept ‘Scandinavia’ in accordance with present terminology.

4 Gram-Skjoldager, Karen, ‘Fred som national interesse? Dansk internationalisme inden Anden Verdenskrig’, in Midtgaard, Kristine and Rasmussen, Lise H., eds., Omverdenen trænger sig på: Politik og ideer i det 20: århundredes historie (Odense: Syddansk Univeristetsforlag, 2006), 125Google Scholar. This tendency to emphasise Scandinavian internationalist unity becomes particularly clear in an article by the Nobel Peace laureate Lange, Christian L., ‘Préparation de la Société des Nations pendant la guerre’, in Munch, Peter, ed., Les Origines et l'Œuvre de la Société des Nations (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1923)Google Scholar.

5 Long, David, ‘J. A. Hobson and Idealism in International Relations’, Review of International Studies, 17 (1991), 285–304Google Scholar. The term ‘collective security’ was not used by the Scandinavian internationalists during this period. In the source material the measures in question are labelled ‘concerted action’, ‘international guarantees’, ‘international law enforcement’ or ‘international sanctions’. Still, it seems reasonable to include them in the broader concept of ‘collective security’, which was later depicted by Carr, E. H. as typical of interwar utopianism: see his The Twenty Years’ Crisis: An Introduction to the Study of International Relations (London: Palgrave, 2001), 8Google Scholar.

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9 The NIU was established primarily as a means of improving intra-Scandinavian relations after the break-up in 1905 of the Swedish–Norwegian union. On the history of the NIU, see Larsen, Knud, ‘Scandinavian Grass Roots: From Peace Movement to Nordic Council’, Scandinavian Journal of History, 9 (1984), 183–200CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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13 Lange, ‘Préparation’, 13; IPU, Rapport du Secrétaire général (Kristiania: IPU, 1915).

14 Lange, ‘Préparation’, 14. The decisions from the NIU council were strictly confidential and not included in the annual reports from the NIU delegates’ meetings of 1914 or 1915.

15 Countries at war present: Germany, Austria, Hungary, Belgium and the United Kingdom; neutrals present: United States, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. Cf. Christian Lange, L., Centralorganisationen för varaktig fred: Dess arbete och hittilsvarande resultat (Lund: Ohlssons Boktryckeri, 1917), 5Google Scholar.

16 Réunion Internationale, La Haye, 7–10 Avril 1915 – ‘Liste des Membres’: Norwegian National Library (NNL), C. L. Lange's personal archive (CL), Ms. fol. 2521:75.

17 Ibid., ‘Compte-Rendu’, 3.

18 Ibid., 4–5.

19 Kristiania, 1919.

20 ‘Compte-Rendu’; Organisation Centrale pour une Durable, Paix, ‘Pour une Paix durable’, Commentaire du programme-minimum (The Hague: CODP, 1915)Google Scholar; Lange, ‘Préparation’, 15–19.

21 Central Organisation for a Durable Peace, Minimum-Program, The Hague, April 1915.

22 Ibid.

23 ‘Compte-Rendu’.

24 Lange, Centralorganisationen, 45–55. The ‘International Council’ was not really a working council, but primarily a list of more or less prominent persons from more than thirty countries who lent their names to the cause.

25 Lange, ’Préparation’, 20.

26 Lange, Centralorganisationen, 16.

27 Gram-Skjoldager, ‘Fred som national interesse’, 130–3. Cf. also Ceadel's, Martin definition of ‘Radical pacific-ism’ in his Thinking about Peace and War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), 114–18Google Scholar.

28 Fredsforening, Dansk, ‘International Sanctions’, in Dickinson, G. Lowes, Problems of the International Settlement (London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1918)Google Scholar. The report was first published in 1916 by the CODP.

29 Organisation Centrale pour une Paix Durable, Recueil de Rapports sur les différents points du programme-minimum, II (The Hague: CODP, 1916), 8–13.

30 Det nordiska interparlamentariska förbundets åttonde delegerademöte, Stockholm, August 1916, (Stockholm: Det nordiska interparlamentariska förbundets, 1916), 19–22.

31 Lange, Christian L., ‘Garantier for folkeretten’, in NIU, ed., Det Nordiska Interparlamentariska Förbundets Åttonde Delegerademöte (Stockholm: NIU, 1916), 115–16Google Scholar.

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33 NIU, Det niende nordiske interparlamentariske delegeretmøte, Vol. II, Forhandlinger ang: spørsmaalet om forholdsregler til sikring av verdensfreden (Kristiania, 1917), 76–7; Munch, Peter, Erindringer 1914–1918: Under den første Verdenskrig (Copenhagen: Nyt Nordisk Forlag, 1967), 274–88Google Scholar; Records of meeting of the three Scandinavian committees in Copenhagen, May 1918: National Archives, Copenhagen (NAC), Danish Foreign Ministry (DFM), 11.B.22.

34 Minutes from the meeting of the Scandinavian committees, 30 Nov. 1918: CL, NNL, Ms. fol. 2521:30.

35 Circular letter to the social democratic parties in Germany, France, Britain, Russia, Austria, Serbia, Turkey and Belgium and the executive committee of the international bureau regarding a conference for the social democratic parties of the neutral countries in Copenhagen, 11 Nov. 1914: Library and Archive of the Danish Workers Movement (LADWM), Archive of the Danish Social Democratic Party (ADSDP), box 518, folder 2.

36 Thorvald Stauning to Camille Huysmans, 31 Dec. 1914: LADWM, ADSDP, box 518, folder 2.

37 Circular letter, 11 Nov. 1914.

38 Haupt, Georges, Socialism and the Great War: The Collapse of the Second International (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), 27Google Scholar.

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42 Lange, ‘Préparation’, 42–3.

43 Det niende nordiske interparlamentariske delegeretmøte, II, 82.

44 Larsen, Knud, Forsvar og Folkeforbund (Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlaget, 1976), 193Google Scholar.

45 Record of the meetings of the three Scandinavian committees in Copenhagen, May 1918: NAC, DFM, 11. B.22.

46 Danish FM to Danish legations in Kristiania and Stockholm 4 Feb. 1918 and Danish FM to the Danish Inter-Parliamentary Group 19 Feb. 1918, Nordisk Samarbejde til Forberedelse af Konference af Neutrale Stater 1918, I, NAC, DFM 11.B.22.

47 Record of the meeting of the Nordic ministers in Copenhagen 26–28 June 1918, NAC, DFM, 5.F.27b.

48 Records of the meeting of the three Scandinavian committees in Copenhagen, May 1918, NAC, DFM 11.B.22.

49 Record of the meeting of the Scandinavian ministers in Copenhagen, 26–28 June 1918, NAC, DFM 5.F.27b.

50 See the records of the meetings of the Scandinavian ministers 1916–18, NAC, DFM 5.F.21, 5.F.22b, 5.F.24a and 5.F.27b.

51 ‘Udkast til konvention vedrørende en international retsordning’, published as appendix I in Foreløbig Beretning angaaende den til Undersøgelse af Spørgsmaal vedrørende Varetagelsen af de neutrale Staters Interesser ved og efter Krigens Slutning nedsatte danske Komites Virksomhed (Copenhagen, 1919).

52 Danish Foreign Ministry to the Danish legation, Stockholm 20 Jan. 1919, NAC, DFM 11.B.22.

53 Ibid.

54 Minutes from the meeting 26 November–1 December 1918, NNL, CL, Ms. fol. 2521:30; Larsen, Forsvar, 202–6.

55 The Covenant for the League of Nations was discussed and evaluated at the Nordic interparliamentary meeting in September 1919, in Det nordiska interparlamentariska förbundets elfte delegeredemöte, Stockholm, September 1919 (Stockhom: Nordiska Interparlamentariska Förbundets, 1919), 15–113.

56 Betænkning angaaende Danmarks Tiltræden af Folkenes Forbund, Rigsdagstidende (Official Journal of the Danish Parliament), 1919–20, Appendix A, cols. 5322–3; Nils Yngvar Bøe Lindgren, ‘Norge og oprettelsen av Folkeforbundet’, MA thesis, University of Oslo, 1993, 157–87; Erik Lönnroth, Den svenska utrikespolitikens historia, Vol. 5: 1919–1939 (Stockholm: Norstedts, 1959), 30–3.

57 Lönnroth, Den svenska utrikespolitikens historia, 33–6.

58 Larsen, Forsvar og Folkeforbund, 214–34.

59 Aarbok for de nordiske interparlamentariske Grupper, vol. II, 1920, 10.

60 Larsen, Forsvar og Folkeforbund, 247.

61 Ibid., 251; Shepard Jones, Scandinavian States, 218–19.

62 See, e.g., Cohn, Georg, Neutralité et Societé des Nations (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1924)Google Scholar.

63 Fortroligt Rigsdagsmøde 3 Apr. 1919: Beretning om Forhandlingerne vedrørende Folkenes Forbund (Confidential meeting in the Danish Parliament 3 Apr. 1919: Report regarding the negotiations about the League of Nations): Library and Archive of the Danish Parliament, Copenhagen.

64 See, e.g., the memorandum by P. Munch (probably April 1921): NAC, DFM, 11.B.30a.

65 This and the following paragraphs are also partly based on Gram-Skjoldager's Ph.D. thesis, Aarhus University (forthcoming).

66 Shepard Jones, Scandinavian States, 220.

67 Friis, Finn T. B., De nordiske Lande og Folkeforbundet (Graasten: Folkung, 1944), 42–3Google Scholar.

68 Cf. Shepard Jones, Scandinavian States.

69 Friis, De nordiske Lande, 34–6.

70 Ibid., 37–41.