Sverker Åström

Carl Sverker Åström (born 30 December 1915) is a former Swedish diplomat.

Youth and education

Sverker Åström was born in Uppsala, the son of the lawyer John Åström and his wife Brita (née Kugelberg). His father died from illness shortly before the Kreuger Crash in 1932, and his mother was left with four children and the father's fortune lost.

Åström studied at Uppsala University where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1935 and a Candidate of Law in 1939. Åström was a member of the National Student Association in Uppsala, an organization affiliated with the pro-Nazi National League of Sweden, from 1932 to 1937. [cite book |first=Tobias |last=Hübinette
title=Den svenska nationalsocialismen : medlemmar och sympatisörer 1931-45 |year=2002 |publisher=Carlsson |location=Stockholm |pages=485 |language=Swedish |isbn=91-7203-472-6 ]

Diplomatic career

Following his studies Åström was employed as an attaché at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm. From 1940 to 1943 he served at the Swedish mission to the Soviet Union, first in Moscow and then in Kuybyshev. In 1946 he became secretary of legation at the Swedish embassy in Washington, D.C. He returned to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1948 and became its head of division in 1949. From 1953 to 1956 he served as councillor ( _sv. beskickningsråd) at the Swedish embassy in London, and from 1956 to 1963 he was head of the political division and a foreign affairs councillor ( _sv. utrikesråd) at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

In 1964, Åström succeeded Agda Rössel as Sweden's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He stayed on this post until 1970, when he became Sweden's chief negotiator on the EEC treaty in Brussels. Thereafter he served as Swedish State Secretary for Foreign Affairs from 1972 to 1977, and as Swedish ambassador to France from 1978 until his retirement in 1982.

Politically, Åström was firmly connected to the dominant Social Democratic Party and a close friend of its leader, former Prime Minister Olof Palme.

Later life

Åström's autobiography, "Ögonblick : från ett halvsekel i UD-tjänst" ("Moments: From Half a Century in the Duty of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs"), was published in 1992.

In 2003, at the age of 88, Åström came out as a homosexual. In an interview he has explained that his role as a diplomat made it impossible to declare himself as homosexual in public, but that his superiors and others where informed to eliminate the possibility of him being blackmailed by foreign agents. [cite news |first=Britt |last=Peruzzi |title="Vi dansar, dricker och ser solen gå upp" |url=http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,809824,00.html |publisher=Aftonbladet |date=2006-04-15 |accessdate=2007-03-22 |language=Swedish ]

In 2004 he received the "Homo of the Year"-award from the Swedish gay oriented magazine "QX". In 2006 he was one of the co-hosts of the Swedish TV-series "Böglobbyn" ("The Gay Lobby") on Sveriges Television. However he decided to leave the series after just two episodes had been broadcast.

References