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This also seem to match the intensity of the respective feelings. Russia is in Norway (according to Gjermund) a powerful neighbour that might be dangerous, in Sweden it is a traditional enemy (the other one being Denmark, but that is water under the Öresund-bridge now) that ended the last war by chewing up half the core territory (that would be Finland). Russia has been the main foe in all swedish war planning the last 200 years or so. Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se
Well, that and the fact that Russia usurped their status as the big fish in the Baltic pond in the 18th and 19th century.
- Jake Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.
Pre 1871 Prussia was one of the competing powers in the region but was weak enough not to be a threath considering its position at the middle of the board. And pre Prussia hegemony (now we are before the Napoleonic wars) Germany was simply to fractured to pose a threath.
Last time (pre wwI) there was a serious german threath was when there was some attempts to re-structure the Holy German Empire and get it under a centralised power. That coupled with plans for a naval base at the baltic prompted some actions from the swedish state that played some quite some part in the subsequent fracturing.
But lets move to the case of the french great power and its relation to the swedish state during history. France is to far away to pose a serious military threath. Yeah, that's it. Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se
German invasion was called Krigsfall I ("war case I") and was considered the most likely one during WWII. All contingency planning for Krigsfall I was dropped around 1950 and all planning was focused on Krigsfall II (Soviet invasion).
Krigsfall III was the WWII planning against the very real risk of British invasion, and post-war this was redefined as an invasion by Britain/US, US/Britain or NATO. Almost no planning was done until the last 80's, when some low prioritized planning was done on Krigsfall III which was then seen as an invasion from Norway (by either NATO or the Warsaw Pact).
Or maybe by the nasty Norwegians themselves... ;)
One important reason so much focus was on Russia pre WW1 was that they were not only the last ones we had lost a war against, but before that war we had fought a number of wars against the Russians during the 18th century, including the Great Nordic War.
We also, very importantly, shared a land border, while ze Germans would have had to defeat our Navy before they could invade, something which would have been a bit challenging before Germany was united in 1871. Another important reason was that Sweden and Germany where very close culturally; if we would have had MTV in Sweden 100 years ago, they would have sung in German, not English.
That was further strengthened by the common perception of Russia as the Threat. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
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