Dealing with a High Technology Vulnerability Trap:

Abstract

This article reviews the Swedish responses to the security policy challenge presented by the reactivated American high technology export control offensive of the early 1980s. This issue became a major problem for the Swedish social democratic government and was also of great concern to Swedish industrialists. The Swedish handling of its high technology vulnerability trap is discussed as an illustration of the use of different security-enhancing strategies by a small industrial state in a setting of adversarial interdependence. The case shows the persistent weight of interstate conflict within interdependence and highlights the webs of transnational relations which intrude upon the governing capacity of states. The tension between the logic of transnational society and intergovernmental relations becomes apparent. The Swedish handling of the high technology control issue in the 1980s can in part be explained in terms of a traditional small-state national adjustment strategy. By using the webs of transnationalism Sweden was also able to manoeuver to shape the necessary adjustment policies in ways acceptable from an international neutrality perspective and from a domestic politics perspective. A (trans)national mobilization strategy was exploited in this case. This case also suggests that the so-called second and third faces of power can help us to understand better the national security implications of transnational activities by states and societies.