ABSTRACT
In recent years, and especially since the onset of war in Ukraine, the concept of “total defence” has re-emerged in the Nordic and Baltic Sea regions. Other countries and defence organisations are looking to this development as one potential response to “hybrid” threats. Focusing on the Swedish case, this chapter investigates how state institutions define emerging threats, and how such understandings are related to the need to develop and to mobilise support for, and engagement in, total defence institutions and organisation. The aim of this chapter is to contribute to our understanding of how perceptions and understandings of threats develop and how they are communicated in the context of total defence organising and planning. A key observation in the chapter is that threat perceptions in Sweden have changed in the past decade, indicating a widening understanding of security and paving the way for substantial changes to national and societal security thinking and practice. To capture this change, the analysis draws on reports by the Swedish Defence Commission from 2013 to 2023, as well as key government decisions on total defence planning and organising.
