Resilience: Planning for Sweden’s ‘Total Defence’

Further information

The Defence Commission was a forum for consultation between the Swedish Government and representatives of the political parties in Riksdag. The objective was to achieve the broadest possible unity with respect to how Sweden's defence and security policy was to be designed. The Government formed its proposals for Riksdag based on reports from the Defence Commission.

The task of the Defence Commission was also to remove focus from current issues. By analysing important changes in international development, globally and for relevant regions, and particularly the development in Europe and Sweden's surroundings, the Commission was then able to figure out the consequences this trend would have for Sweden's defence.

In a future report to be presented no later than 14 May 2019, the Defence Commission would provide a comprehensive assessment of the security situation and its consequences for Swedish defence and security policy. That report would include suggestions concerning Swedish security policy and the consequences and ambitions regarding military capability in the period 2021-2025. In response to the deteriorating security situation in 2018, Sweden was taking steps not only to enhance its war fighting capability but also to increase the resilience of society. The government appointed a Defence Commission in 2017 to look beyond current issues with a view to calibrating the country’s future defence policy and posture.

It issued a report in December 2017 called Resilience – The total defence concept and the development of civil defence 2021-2025, which focused specifically on the need to prepare the whole of society for the worst-case scenario of war.

• Primary Source

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