Logotyp: till Försvarshögskolans hemsida

This study examines the development of air defenses that evolved during World War 1, as a result of the birth of long-range strategic bombing missions able to reach far beyond the battlefield frontlines, primarily being directed at population centers and civilian targets. The dissertation tackles the research problem of what Sweden, as a neutral country, could learn regarding air defense systems from Great Britain, France and Germany; and if, and how, Sweden managed to benefit from and utilize these lessons. The purpose being to study the origin of air defenses in the combatting countries; as well as in Sweden. The study is based around organizational theories concerning military learning and lessons learned processes, that lists steps for learning, as well as factors that could affect the process. Using this theory, as well as a qualitative text analysis method, the study scrutinizes Sweden’s capability to 1: acquire, 2: manage, 3: disseminate and 4: finally transform the knowledge and experiences of the aforementioned countries, at the time around World War 1 and the inter-war years. The study finds that Sweden followed the first three learning steps satisfactorily, but stumbled with the fourth step, due to interference from external factors, which will be brought up and scrutinized, in accordance with the theory.