Östen Undén

Östen Undén

Bo Östen Undén (Karlstad 25 August 1886 – Stockholm 14 January 1974), J.D., was a Swedish academic, civil servant and Social Democratic politician and acting Prime Minister of Sweden 6 October 1946-11 October 1946 following the death of Per Albin Hansson. In 1917, he was appointed professor and head of the department of civil law at Uppsala University, but he came to divide his career between politics and academia, which prompted his resignation from the position as rector magnificus (1929–1932) of that university. He served as the foreign ministry's expert on international law, as Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden 1924–1926 and 1945–1962, minister without portfolio 1917–1920 and 1932–1936, the government's chancellor for universities 1937–1951, and he chaired the parliament's committee on foreign relations during World War II.

Östen Undén was much respected, particularly within the Social Democratic Party, but was never uncontroversial. He belonged, together with Ernst Wigforss, clearly to the left-wing faction of the Social Democrats, and has in retrospect been criticized for a much too rosy view of the Soviet Union that remained for all of his time as Foreign Minister, well on to 1962 .

At the same time, Undén must be acknowledged as a chief representative for Sweden's covert Cold War adaptation to the United States, as in his view Swedish governmental agencies, including the Defence Forces, were free to conclude any agreements with foreign powers and agencies that didn't literally contradict international treaties Sweden was a party of — as long as he and his ministry wasn't formally involved. As an effect, the Swedish government could even before the founding of NATO agree to build air bases in eastern Scandinavia suitable for bombing missions against Leningrad. Similar adaptations, that in effect made Sweden's neutralist stance rather hollow, included integration in the US embargo policy from the Korean War and on, and an agreement signed^{[citation needed]} with the Kennedy administration including some guarantees for US support in case of a Soviet attack.

In 1961, his proposal, "The Undén plan", that states without nuclear weapons should declare that they refused to produce such weapons and to refuse to receive and store such weapons. Undéns proposal was accepted by the United Nations General Assembly as a UN resolution with 58 votes in favour (Scandinavia, Warsaw pact, third world countries), 10 votes against (NATO members) and 23 votes of abstention (Latin America, former French colonies in Africa).

Political offices
Preceded by Eliel Löfgren	Minister for Justice 1920-1920	Succeeded by Assar Åkerman
Preceded by Erik Marks von Würtemberg	Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs 1924–1926	Succeeded by Eliel Löfgren
Preceded by Christian Günther	Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs 1945-1962	Succeeded by Torsten Nilsson
Preceded by Per Albin Hansson	Acting Prime Minister of Sweden 1946-1946	Succeeded by Tage Erlander

Persondata
Name	Unden, Osten
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	25 August 1886
Place of birth	Karlstad
Date of death	14 January 1974
Place of death