Das Primat der Neutralitätspolitik: Building Regimes at Home

Abstract

Sundelius, B. Das Primat der Neutralitätspolitik: Building Regimes at Home. Coop eration and Conflict, XXIV, 1989, 163-178.

In this article the strategies used by the traditional foreign policy chief to control the passageway between the foreign and domestic arenas of public activity will be discussed. The paper focuses on the domestic struggle over the conduct of foreign policy. Drawing on the works of Charles Kegley and Robert Keohane, it is argued that the continued prominence of the Swedish Foreign Ministry in this sector can be understood in the context of the persistence of a well-entrenched decision regime built around the concept of neutrality. The apparent ability of this traditional gatekeeper to dominate this internal management process also in the face of the decentralizing pressures associated with interdependence will be explained in terms of the decision regime concept. The study contributes to an understanding of how international developments affect the internal organizational life of a state. Further study into the domestic roles of the international guardians of the national interest in other states, too, may be warranted. Regime-building may facilitate international cooperation or national policy coordination. It may also help perpetuate the influence of hegemonic actors in the international system and within a domestic setting. The unmasking of the attributes of decision regimes in various states or in various international issue areas would seem to be an important task for a political scientist.