Robert Wheelersburg
Sweden joined NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to protect itself from its perpetual and primary enemy. To counter the current Russian threat following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Sweden evolved its security strategy of neutrality and territorial defense to one that supports alliance operations throughout the Nordic region. Some analysts suggest that to achieve that new strategy’s goals, Sweden needed to change public attitudes and traditions resulting from two centuries of military non-alignment to those that support the country’s role in multi-national operations. This essay’s hypothesis is that Sweden evolved from its Cold War message encouraging the population to survive an invasion and conduct a guerilla war against Russian occupation to today’s message that an alliance-based conflict is winnable if the Swedish military and civilian population fight without surrendering. To test that hypothesis, the author translated and compared Cold War Swedish armed forces and civil defense publications to those produced following application for NATO membership in 2022 to determine if there is an observable difference in messaging between the two periods. The results indicate that while Sweden is clearly on its path to integration into the NATO alliance, its security publications directed at the populace remain committed to total defense, emphasizing each person’s individual and collective responsibility in ensuring the country’s territorial integrity and the subjects’ collective security.
