ABSTRACT
Sweden has been quick in reacting to Russia's aggressive behaviour in Europe, but slow acting on that assessment. A shift was under way towards perceiving Russia as a serious threat and in favour of both a stronger national defence and membership in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), already before Russia attacked and annexed Crimea. However, Crimea reinforced and accelerated this swing in public and elite opinion. The changing mood has also led to a renaissance for the concept of deterrence in Sweden; many policy documents are now steeped in deterrence-thinking, and 'threshold' has even become a defence buzzword. Given the paucity of new defence funding, it has so far been easier to reduce Sweden's near-term deterrence deficit by nudging closer to the US and to NATO, than by raising national capabilities – that is, provided that a politically safe distance to the membership issue is kept.
