Background:
A military power during the
17th century,
Sweden has not participated in any
war in almost two centuries. An armed neutrality was preserved in both World Wars. Sweden's long-successful economic formula of a capitalist system interlarded with substantial welfare elements has recently been undermined by high unemployment, rising maintenance costs, and a declining position in world markets. Indecision over the country's role in the political and economic integration of
Europe caused Sweden not to join the
EU until 1995, and to forgo the introduction of the
euro in 1999.