Logo: to the web site of the Swedish Defence University

In the 1940s, Sweden adopted a policy known as Det fria kriget (approximately translated to The Free War) which was a conceptualization of a war in which its homeland had suffered a major invasion by a malignant and far stronger opponent. Det fria kriget remains, to this day, mostly a set of instructions outlining how the military were to reorganize itself, at that point, to uphold the nations military resilience. This paper compares, contrasts, and discusses established conceptualizations of guerrilla warfare along the traditions of Sun Tzu, Lenin, Mao, and Che Guevara and concludes that Det fria kriget is in fact a conceptualization of Swedish guerrilla warfare. This paper calls to action a deeper understanding of the tradition and how it might have changed up until today, if it is to serve the nation’s interests come tomorrow as well.