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Deterrence was during the cold war and is still today an important part of being war deterrent. The military defence of Sweden has since the end of the cold war been under disarmament. Despite the disarmament of the Swedish military, the military strategic policy is still that Sweden shall be able to deter a superpower.

In what way has the deterrence strategy changed between the periods 1957 to 1963 and 2014 to 2017, regarding the strategic threat, security policy and military capability?

The aim with this thesis is to mediate an understanding, how Sweden as a small state is trying to accomplish deterrence against a superpower and how Sweden has changed its view of deterrence.

The analysis show that there has been a change of the deterrence strategy, based on the strategic threat, security policy and military capability, but still some parts remain the same. The biggest change between to two periods is that today deterrence is regarded best achieved together with other countries rather then alone.