Sven Backlund in Search of Small State Internationalism in the Interwar Years

Abstract

Sven Backlund (1887–1953) was a Swedish journalist who worked for the Social Democratic Party leader and Prime Minister Hjalmar Branting, and wrote for several left-wing newspapers. In the interwar years, he published a number of handbooks in internationalism, and his engagement in workers’ education combined experiences from journalism with his work as a correspondent and interpreter at the League of Nations and the International Labour Organization. The article discusses Backlund’s approach to internationalism, focusing especially on the idea of power balance and how it could be achieved.