Logo: to the web site of the Swedish Defence University

The purpose of this empirical case study is to discuss and problematise what the active foreign policy came to mean in practice in relation to Sweden's policy of non-alignment in peace with the intention to be neutral in the event of war. I chose to study the Swedish government's humanitarian aid to the national movement FRELIMO in Mozambique 1964–1975, mediated via SIDA.The main questions asked in this study were: When and under what circumstances did humanitarian aid begin to be provided to FRELIMO? What was the nature of the aid? What arguments were put forward and how did the discussion look like during the period in regards to giving aid to FRELIMO in relation to the policy of Swedish neutrality? Did the discussion of the policy of Swedish neutrality change among the actors involved during the period?Methodologically I took inspiration from the Swedish professor of Pedagogy Per-Johan Ödman’s hermeneutical method to uncover and assign meaning to material with inner control logic and outer control logic. Inner logical control can reveal blind spots or lack of realism in the material. External logic control is when the material can be checked against other material that can substantiate or refute the statements contained in the material.During the study, it emerged that the aid to FRELIMO developed and changed in terms of both content and execution. The early aid consisted of relatively small cash grants but later developed into commodity aid worth 15 million Swedish Kronor – containing everything from provisions and children's shoes to dark green lorries. This study strengthens the results from the study of Swedish historian Urban Lundberg, where he argues that the boundary between what was humanitarian aid and what was military aid was blurred.My study also shows that Swedish officials at both SIDA and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were aware that the material they delivered was useful for FRELIMO's military operations and that they adapted the aid to fit FRELIMO:s military needs despite the Swedish policy of non-alignment in peace with the intention to be neutral in the event of war.