This paper seeks to examine how Swedish politicians went about justifying Swedish arms exports to destinations whose states of affairs were critical in coherence to the guidelines for being an export destination for Swedish military equipment.

The survey will describe these guidelines, which are included in Swedish law and regulations issued by the EU. This is followed by an argument analysis on the politicians' statement regarding the case. The main purpose of this essay is to analyse and examine the content which is presented in the parliament debate, regarding the export of the Swedish rocket launcher Carl Gustav 84mm to Burma in 1982. The argumentation analysis will follow the framework that emerges from Textens mening och makt written by Kristina Boréus and Göran Bergström, whose methodology is the pro et contra method, which is applied with two thesis.

The analysis will be added at the end of the thesis in the form of an appendix. Theorywise, I have chosen to apply realism and liberalism as starting points. By applying these theories, my results have shown the realistic tendencies that occur in the Swedish politicians' rhetoric regarding arms exports. This will thus be interesting to highlight, followed by the attempt to summaries the content. My conclusion is that the nation's actions include many parallels to realism, like the rhetoric of the parliamentary parties.