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Scandinavia and imperialism: why are Sweden and Finland now joining Nato?
by Prabhat Patnaik
INTO THE FOLD: Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, left, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde, right, and Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg attend a media conference after the signature of the Nato accession protocols for Finland and Sweden
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SO SCANDINAVIAN countries Sweden and Finland are joining Nato. There are many misconceptions about Scandinavian capitalism.
A common one is the belief that since the Scandinavian countries developed vigorous capitalist economies, without ever having acquired any colonies of their own, they refute the claim that capitalist development necessarily requires imperialism. This is based on a misconception, not just about Scandinavia but above all about imperialism itself.
Indeed, one may say many positive things about the concessions wrung out of capitalism by Scandinavian social democracy (although many of these are under threat in the current epoch of neoliberalism), but it represents a complete misreading of capitalism to say that Scandinavia constitutes an example of non-imperialist capitalism. The Scandinavian countries themselves may not have had colonies, but they have ridden piggy-back on the imperialism of other powers.
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