A Swedish perspective of the United States

Note: I wrote the brief article below for a global journalism class and wanted to share it here. Since the assignment was supposed to be short, it's not an in-depth perspective, but is still a collection of viewpoints by Swedish citizens.

People all over the world have opinions about the United States, a so-called superpower trying to inject ideological and other influences throughout the globe.


But what do citizens of Sweden, a place that hasn’t been invaded by U.S. military forces, think about this country?

Dag Blanck, who wrote a chapter in the 2008 book The Americanization of Europe [edited by Alexander Stephan], concluded through research that anti-United States viewpoints by Swedes have been fairly weak compared to other European countries. Reasons Blanck gives for this include historically strong ties between the two countries after a large portion of Sweden’s population, 1.3 million people, emigrated to the U.S. between 1840 and 1930, and also Sweden’s position of neutrality in war-related conflicts.

While there may be less negative sentiment, Swedish people still have certain viewpoints on U.S. foreign relations and cultural influences.

Many people in the world have perceived President Barack Obama as campaigning for dramatic changes in U.S. policies. Christine Beckman of Karlskoga, a Swedish language teacher for 15 years who has researched communication between different cultures, has a different perspective on this president’s goals.

“I think many Swedish people believe whether it’s Obama, Bush or Clinton, it doesn’t matter – it’s all the same and won’t change,” Beckman said.

Anders Avdic, an assistant professor in informatics at Örebro University who has lived in and traveled multiple times to the U.S., is realistic but more encouraged by the Obama presidency.

“I am still rather hopeful and positive about Obama, but I understand it’s not an easy job,” Avdic said.

The professor is mostly satisfied with the presidency, but still disagrees with Obama’s views on strengthening the U.S. role in Afghanistan.

In November 2008, when Obama was not yet an elected president, K-G Bergström, a political commentator for SVT, gave his opinion on Obama’s policies. While many Swedish politicians voiced their support for Obama during his campaign, Bergström believed Europe would be disappointed by certain Obama stances such as supporting the death penalty and choosing not to remove U.S. troops serving overseas.

Along with politics, U.S. television, music, literature and other culture are strongly infiltrated in other countries. In Sweden, it’s almost impossible to not find U.S. music playing on the radio, shows on the television or movies in the theater. Avdic sees the U.S. culture as some of the “best and worst” of influences.

“There is a huge amount of excellent culture from the U.S., and a lot of crap, too,” he said.

As long as the Swedish public radio and television are still around, Avdic said he isn’t worried about the U.S. culture.

Beckman also doesn’t think Swedish culture will be diluted by the U.S. influence, but she wonders how anyone can define the Swedish culture without considering outside influence by Germany, France and many places throughout the years.

“As long as human beings from different parts of the world have met, they have influenced each other,” she said.

For now, while still critical, these Swedish citizens have a more accepting perspective.

 
 
© Copyright 2010 by Angela Chambers Jenkins