Denna avhandling undersöker hur Östersjöregionen (om)formades intellektuellt, politiskt och geografiskt under perioden 1914–1945, med särskilt fokus på den roll som Sverige förväntades spela i denna process. Studien visar att svensk utrikespolitik och internationellt tänkande inte utvecklades genom konsensus, utan genom en dynamik präglad av återkommande debatter och konkurrerande perspektiv från aktörer över hela det politiska spektrumet. Till skillnad från tidigare forskning, som främst har analyserat den officiella diplomatin, riktar avhandlingen uppmärksamheten mot de rumsliga idéer och föreställningar som formade den svenska förståelsen av regionen och världen.

Analysen visar att svenska aktörers tolkningsramar för världspolitiken var nationellt kodade, men samtidigt formade av historiska erfarenheter, utrikespolitiska visioner och geopolitiska strategier. Östersjöregionen framträder här som ett centralt rum i den svenska utrikespolitiska föreställningsvärlden – inte enbart i relation till föråldrade drömmar om att återfå stormaktstatus, som ofta framhållits i tidigare forskning, utan också i relation till svenska försök att ”sublimera” expansionistiska ambitioner till kommersiellt, kulturellt, ekonomiskt och tekniskt normentreprenörskap, såväl i Östersjöregionen som bortom dess gränser.

This thesis argues that the Baltic Sea region was shaped intellectually, politically and geographically during the period 1914–1945. From a Swedish perspective, this process of imaginative formation did not occur throughconsensus; rather, it transpired through continuous debate and discussionamong a multitude of different actors. In this particular context, a variety ofbilateral, regional, and universal arguments pertaining to diverse ideologiesexerted influence on Swedish foreign policy and this “region work in themargins”.

Previous research on Swedish foreign policy has tended to focus on analyses of official policies as well as on high level diplomatic and international relations. Less attention has been paid to understanding hownspatial ideas about the region and the world contributed to Swedish international political thought. The thesis aims to contribute with a deeper and more nuanced understanding of how foreign policy is discussed andshaped. This thesis proffers a novel perspective on the history of Swedishinternational political thought by means of an analysis of statements from awide range of Swedish actors representing the entire political spectrum inwhat is referred to as “extended foreign policy”.

It is evident that the Swedish understanding of world politics was constrained by a national interpretative framework. This does not imply that Sweden lacked the capacity to adopt alternative perspectives; the geopolitical strategies available for understanding the fluctuations of world politics were determined by historical factors, concrete experiences, and foreignpolicy visions that were prevalent in Sweden at the time. The conclusiondrawn from this research is that, in the context of Swedish internationalpolitical thought, which attributes an important role to Sweden in globalissues, the history of the Baltic Sea region is significant, insofar as it hasserved as a site for projections and visions. This is not only in relation to outdated dreams of regaining great power status, as often claimed in previous research, but also in relation to Swedish attempts at “sublimating” such expansionist ambitions into commercial, cultural, economic and technical norm entrepreneurship, in the Baltic Sea region and beyond.