Under the Damocles Sword: Managing Swedish energy dependence in the twentieth century

In 1900 a Swedish member of parliament argued that Sweden had a Damocles Sword hanging over it due to the country's rapidly growing imports of coal. This energy import dependence has continued to plague Sweden ever since. While coal dominated imports in the first half of the twentieth century, oil and uranium dominated in the second half. This article examines how Swedish public and private actors coped with the country's energy dependence. Several crises prompted such efforts. Coal strikes in the Interwar years and oil embargoes in the 1970s spurred diversification and collaboration with other importing countries. During World War II Sweden built trustful coal relations with Nazi Germany and stockpiled coal. In the post-war era fear of the international oil majors spurred attempts to increase public control over energy imports, and a state-owned company for foreign oil exploration was set up. Moreover, during and after wars and other acute crises Swedish actors intensified their efforts to exploit more of the country's domestic energy resources. However, when the crisis was over it often proved to be cheaper to import energy from abroad. Thus imports have remained high and the Damocles Sword is still hanging over Sweden.