The Nordic Countries ― From War to Cold War, 1944-51

This book is a collection of diplomatic documents describing the development of British relations with the Nordic countries between the end of the Second World War and the defeat of the Labour Government in 1951.

The end of the Second World War brought hopes of building a new society in Western Europe. This volume documents Foreign Office concerns about the range of problems, both multilateral and bilateral, which still remained to be resolved in the Nordic area, and describes the evolution of policies to deal with them. The Soviet Union, which in May 1945 already occupied parts of Norway and Denmark and dominated Finland, was perceived as a growing threat. The Nordic region was considered to be of significant strategic importance during this period. The documents describe the process whereby Britain attempted to encourage Scandinavian countries away from their support for neutrality and, by enlisting American support, began the process which led to the signature of the Atlantic Treaty in 1949, signed by Norway, Denmark and Iceland. They also include material describing the establishment of Information Research Department (formed to counteract Soviet propaganda) and illustrating some of its methods. Some documents not previously in the public domain have been declassified for this volume. Most are drawn from the archives of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, but there are also a number of Prime Ministerial and Cabinet Office documents.

This book will be of much interest to students of the Cold War, European history, British political history, international history and IR in general.

Tony Insall is a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and an Associate Editor of the Historians at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Patrick Salmon is Chief Historian at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.