Deterrence is highly relevant in both peacetime, in wartime and in the grey zone in between. While operating in the whole spectra the Swedish Security Forces can benefit greatly from the use of deterrence. Deterrence is found in Swedish doctrine; therefore, the purpose of this case study is to answer to what extent deterrence may be found on tactical level warfare in the Swedish Security Forces. The Swedish Security Forces is represented by the Swedish Military Police, the Air Force Rangers, and Airbase Security Forces in this study.
The research design of this study is a qualitive text analysis of three handbooks and uses Harvey’s (1997) theory of successful deterrence as a theoretical framework. The theory centres around the factors communication, capability and credibility. This study conclude that Harvey’s factors can be found in the handbooks combined, although there is a difference to what extent when looked at separately. Communication is well found in all handbooks while capability is just explicit found in one of them. This on the other hand may not be a problem though the sum of all the handbooks shows that deterrence is found on tactical level, which gives an interconnection from doctrinal level down to handbook level in the Swedish Armed Forces.