SO I was reading about the Swedish Gendarmerie, and how Sweden was aiding in the modernization of Iran's military around WWI, which I found very interesting and surprising since I had not expected a country like Sweden to be involved in Iran's military modernization. That said, I was wondering what sort of relationship existed between the two countries, and was this the first instance in which they aided in the modernization of Iran?
Don't know about Sweden per se but Iran and Europe have historically influenced each other and many European practices were introduced including Western managers (An American advisor was appointed to run the economy) when Iran was modernizing
Around 1905 Iran had establishd the first democracy and Constitutional Monarchy in the Mideast (which was eventually toppled by Russian-British pressure to re-install a shah and maintain control over the oil). This was based on the Belgian constitution. http://www.iranchamber.com/history/constitutional_revolution/constitutional_revolution.php
Reza Shah also sought out European assistance in develping the military because he wanted non-Brit/Russians
Immortal by Steven R. Ward has a chapter about this.