ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the construction of Swedish security policy with a focus on identified security dangers and the transformation of security and defence issues from the 1990s to the 2010s. Based mainly on governments’ defence bills and parliamentary defence commission reports, the chapter displays how threats and risks to Swedish security have been constructed during this time. Theoretically, the chapter argues that we need to understand security according to different logics to analyse the change in security constructions. The Cold War context was dominated by a mainly threat-based and military-oriented security logic, which was later replaced by one in which different kinds of societal risks beyond territorial security became primary considerations. During the 2010s, however, we can observe a return to an emphasis on military security and territoriality in Swedish security policy but taking place in a context that is also influenced by risk logic components. The chapter therefore proposes both logics and a dual approach to security for the purposes of analysing contemporary security policy in the Swedish as well as the broader Nordic and European contexts.
