Crisis and Internalization: Eight Cases from a Cognitive-Institutional Perspective

Eric Stern & Fredrik Bynander (1998)

The project National Crisis Management from an International Perspective, of which this book is a part, has the goals of mapping national profiles of decision-making during crises among the countries of the Baltic Sea area and gathering in-depth experience of previous historic crisis episodes. The gallery of crises examined using the cognitive-institutional approach developed within the project is diverse. The earliest case concerns the decisions generated by the impending German invasion of Norway and Denmark in April 1940 – Operation Weserübung. Another military/security problem analyzed is the prolonged, but unsuccessful, submarine hunt in the Swedish bay of Hårsfjärden in 1982. Three cases concern international terrorism in the forms of bombings and hostage-takings. The first is the wave of bombings in France during 1995. The second compares three hostage situations involving Swedish citizens abroad – in Angola (1987), Kashmir (1991), and Colombia (1994). The third study in this category examines the siege at the Japanese ambassador´s residency in Lima, Peru (1996-97). Another examines the violent conflict between the Hell´s Angels and the Bandidos that raged in Sweden and the other Nordic countries 1994-97. The Mad Cow disease scare is considered from a Swedish perspective. Lastly, the terrible tragedy of the passenger ferry M/V Estonia is analyzed, focusing upon the rescue operations during the early hours of the crisis.