This book is the first single-volume survey of Norway's foreign relations as they have developed over a thousand yaers. Is has a dual foundation: it is both an offshoot of a major project, which the author led, that produced a six-volume history of Norwegian foreign policy, and the result of the author's own research as a long-standing student of Norway's foreign relations. Beginning with the rise and fall of a medieval Norwegian North Atlantic empire, the book reviews Norway's foreign relations during the eclipse of the Norwegian state in the union with Denmark, followed by its resurgence through the Swedish-Norwegian Union1814-1905. The main part of the book then surveys and analyses the foreign policy of Norway as a sovereign and independent state in the 20th centry, at first wary of involvement in European power politics, but active in the promotion of its economic interests. The German invasion of Norway in 1940 shattered the illusion of safe remoteness from the conflict lines of