Project Manager
Bodensten, ErikProject manager
Lund UniversityAmount granted
247 000 SEKYear
2017This research project focuses on how incipient democratization in several European states in the 18th century made them vulnerable to public diplomacy and foreign information and influence campaigns in a qualitatively new way. The aim of the project is to investigate how other states (France, Russia, Great Britain and Denmark) sought to influence the foreign policy decision-making process in one such democratic state - libertarian Sweden (1719-72) - via domestic public opinion. Analytically, the focus is on how foreign disinformation in particular circulated in the Swedish media system. The overall question is how public diplomacy was used towards public opinion, voters and elected officials in Sweden during this period. By combining the research fields of international relations, diplomatic history and media history, this project provides new historical perspectives on an important contemporary social phenomenon.