Is Terrorism Sweden’s New Export?

A Deadly Truck Attack Shatters a Nation's Complacency

There is a difference between knowing that Islamic terrorism could befall your country, and experiencing it. The April 7 truck attack in central Stockholm was experienced as a shock across the country. Our king even held one of his rare speeches to the nation. Some shock was understandable. But we should not have been surprised.

For many years Sweden’s relative calm has disguised the fact that we are exporters of terrorism. More than 300 Swedish residents have traveled to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria—a high rate for a …

By Magnus Sandelin | April 19, 2017

How Deprivation and the Threat of Violence Made Sweden Equal

War and the Great Depression Spurred Its Embrace of the Welfare State

By Walter Scheidel | April 19, 2017

Sweden is almost universally regarded as a bastion of sensible people, temperate social policies, and steady, evenly distributed economic growth. So it surprises many to learn that the Scandinavian country …

Refugees Are Changing the Land of Ikea and Abba

The Reshaping of Sweden's Social and Political Model

By Bruno Kaufmann | April 19, 2017

“Which color?” asked the officer, who sat on the other side of the solid table.

“What?” I answered cautiously.

The state representative, whom I met on a gray February day …

The Radical Paradox of Sweden’s Consensus Culture

Our Inclination to Agree Pushes Political and Social Policies to Extremes

By Daniel Lindvall | April 19, 2017

In the 1930s, the American journalist Marquis Childs, after spending time in Sweden, wrote the bestselling book Sweden: The Middle Way. Childs described a country without major social conflicts between …

A Nation Jolted by Terrorism Redefines Its Sense of Self

The End of Sweden’s “Naïve Slumber” Lays Bare Its Competing Truths

By Tove Lifvendahl | April 19, 2017

The woman in the audience is among those who will stay for a while to ask a question. I have just been giving a lecture at the Foreign Policy Association …

Was Sweden Ever a Model Society?