Logo: to the web site of the Swedish Defence University

Purpose

The total defence (TD) concept constitutes a joint endeavour between the military forces and civil defence structures within a TD state. Logistics is essential for such joint collaboration to work; however, the mismatch between military and civil defence logistics structures poses challenges for such joint collaboration. The purpose of this paper is to identify logistics concept areas within the TD framework that allow for military and civil defence collaborations from a logistics operations perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

Pattern-matching analysis is used to compare patterns found in the investigated case with those prescribed from the literature and predicted to occur. The study seeks to identify logistics concepts within TD from the literature and from the events describing the Swedish response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Pattern matching thus allows for the reconciliation of logistics concepts from the literature to descriptions of how the response was handled, albeit under a TD framework.

Findings

Findings show quite distinct foci between the theoretical and observational realms in terms of logistics applications. While the theoretical realm identifies four main logistics concepts, the observational realm identifies five logistics conceptual themes. This goes on to show an incongruence between the military and civil parts of the TD.

Research limitations/implications

This study provides basis for further research into the applications and management of logistics activity within TD and emergency response.

Originality/value

Logistics applications within TD have not, until now, received much attention in the literature. Given this knowledge gap, this study is of original value.

Considering the current instability within the European security landscape, militaries are seeking new ways to grow and counter emergent threats. However, there is a rarity of armed forces addressing logistics growth within literature. Thus, this paper investigates growth concepts that can enable military forces develop, conduct, and grow logistics to achieve its operational objectives. The paper undertakes extant literature analysis of three relevant theories of growth as a means to review for comprehending organizational growth. The relationships between logistics and three growth theories as well as industry growth practices are analysed. Argues that the development of the concept of logistics growth in the military require support not just from established growth theories but also from long-standing industrial practice in order to fully develop the best strategic-fit growth concept for the military. Nine propositions reflecting antecedent relationships amongst theoretical variables for growth are developed. Study serves as a point of departure for further research on military growth in general and military logistics growth in particular and provides military leaders with disciplinary options for evaluating logistics growth strategies for achieving operational objectives and goals.

This is a series of solicited articles requested by the editors of Vol. 51, emerging from a roundtable discussion held at the 2022 International Studies Association Convention. Each short contribution seeks to demonstrate the newest research of the English School of International Relations. These contributions tackle key questions including: the decline of liberal hegemony, the rise of China, the divide between soldaristic and pluralistic ethics, the engagement of the English School with Area Studies, theoretical approaches to grounding English School research and an investigation of the English School’s intellectual legacy.

This book offers a new research agenda for intelligence studies in contemporary times.

In contrast to Intelligence Studies (IS), whose aim has largely been to improve the performance of national security services and assist in policy making, this book takes the investigation of the new professionals and everyday practices of intelligence as the immediate point of departure. Starting from the observation that intelligence today is increasingly about counter-terrorism, crime control, surveillance, and other security-related issues, this book adopts a transdisciplinary approach for studying the shifting logics of intelligence, how it has come to involve an expanding number of empirical sites, such as the police, local community, prison and the Internet, as well as a corresponding multiplicity of new actors in these domains. Shifting the focus away from traditional spies and Anglo-American intelligence services, this book addresses the transformations of contemporary intelligence through empirically detailed and theoretically innovative analyses, making a key contribution to existing scholarship.

This book will be of much interest to students of intelligence studies, critical security studies, foreign policy, and International Relations.

For several years, the Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF), M. Bydén, has acknowledged the significance of digital security threats (Bydén, 2017). Even now, he continues to stress the importance of taking such threats seriously; ‘Sweden is attacked everyday by means that harm our society today and in the more long-term. We are not in a military conflict on and about Swedish territory, but we are in a conflict about the values we want to uphold and interests we want to be handled in a democratic way’ (Dagens Nyheter, 2022).

The world’s littorals is an important theater for all sorts of human interaction. So, also for naval warfare, which increasingly has led defense planners to focus on littoral capabilities rather than on Mahanian high-sea battles. We address the question of what littoral warfare means for different types of states. To that end, we develop a set of opposing ideal-types with regards to each type’s operational environment, aims, methods, and means for littoral warfare. We then use these ideal-types to analyze the naval doctrines of Sweden, the UK, and the US. This comparison generates some interesting results. For blue-water navies, littoral warfare is an additional burden and a high-risk endeavor, since the littoral, which the planning concerns is somebody else’s. For the small coastal state, correspondingly, littoral warfare is the sole purpose of its navy, and it can focus all its resources there as well as on cooperation with its air force and army, which are necessarily nearby. For blue-water navies, the objective of littoral warfare is to defeat the enemy, whereas for the small coastal state, it is deterrence.

What can we expect in terms of security governance in targeted states as international peacebuilding interventions and security sector reform ends? Can we assume that years of reform and capacity building will result in formal security institutions whose function alone can explain stability or instability, sustainable peace or relapses into violence, or even war? In 2018, the United Nations ended its peacekeeping mission in Liberia. Celebrated as a success and role model for future undertakings, scrutinising the UN narrative may appear as a natural starting point for analysing Liberia’s relative stability. Yet, in the Liberian case, formal performance reviews will never be sufficient. This paper, with a conceptual point of departure in theories of hybrid security governance, recognises the continued entangled nature of formal and informal security provision in Liberia. It argues that post-intervention narratives of success should not keep us from assessing security beyond formal state capacity. Instead, holistic approaches are key to understand security governance as non-state security providers are, for better or worse, likely to remain relevant despite years of reform and capacity building.

"Att lära sig saker handlar om att plötsligt förstå något man alltid förstått, men på ett nytt sätt"

Jag väljer att börja denna inledning med ett citat från Doris May Lessing. Det är nämligen om just detta det handlar, det vill säga att förstå vår nutid ur flera perspektiv. Lessing var en autodidaktiker som sedermera tillskrevs nobelpris i litteratur. Hennes samtid gav den lärdom som påverkade såväl hennes liv, kunnande som skicklighet. På motsvarande sätt utgör allt skrivande vid Försvarshögskolan en mening. En mening som vänder och vrider på olika sammanhang. Vår samtid, med dess olika fenomen, blir därför belysta ur flera perspektiv. Denna årsbok sammanställer uppsatser för att ge dig som läsare en uppfattning om vad det skrivs om vid skolan.

En stor del av alla uppsatser som skrivs möter aldrig någon egentlig publik, uta när snarare något som ”bara” ska göras under sin utbildning. Texterna möter en mycket begränsad publik, främst inom Försvarshögskolan, där texter presenteras av författaren och det ges en opponering av andra. Vid dessa tillfällen finns ävenen öppen inbjudan till kollektivet, det vill säga att det står var och en fritt att delta och ta del av såväl diskussioner, som att själv läsa och ta sig an presenterade texter. Dessa texter med alla tankar och idéer som skrivs behöver möta en större publik. Det finns ett värde för professionen att det kan ske. Med professionen i centrum, så kan vi tillsammans genomföra en vetenskaplig professionsutbildning vid Försvarshögskolan som möter morgondagens krav. Vår förhoppning är att denna årsbokska bli en årligt återkommande publikation. Denna första upplaga av årsboken har långt ifrån alla uppsatser medtagna. Det har funnits vissa initiala juridiska dilemman, som nu är åtgärdade och förhoppningen är att kommande upplagor blir mer omfattande till antalet uppsatser. Att skriva texter som andra kan ta del av har en betydelse och påverkan. Att skriva i sanden innebär att klokheten och det man vill förmedla försvinner med nästa vattenvåg.

Syftet med årsboken är att skapa uppmärksamhet för det som främst studerande producerat vid skolan. Det finns all anledning att ägna viss tid åt denna vishet som texterna uttrycker. En anledning är att texterna utgör och speglar vilka tankar och funderingar som finns hos våra kollegor. En annan anledning är att texterna faktiskt uttrycker vad våra kollegor anser vara viktiga sakområden och just därför harde valt att skriva om, och argumentera för, dessa områden. I ett vidare perspektiv har officersprofessionen, likt andra professioner, behovet av att hantera dagens verksamhet parallellt med morgondagens utveckling. Officersprofessionen särskiljer sig dock därför att det ytterst handlar om mandat för, och genomförande av, storskaligt våld. Sammanhanget för individen relaterat professionen är därför vital. Individens kognitiva utveckling, det vill säga lärande, i en utveckligmässig mening, tar sig uttryck i sitt sätt att tänka utifrån hur individen tar in och förstår sin omgivning. Av denna anledning vill vi med årsboken sprida tankar inom professionen för att bidra till debatt och utveckling.

Årsboken har en målsättning att vi ska kunna minnas och se till vilka områden som varit aktuella för just detta år. Av denna anledning finns en metaanalys med i boken som tar sitt avstamp såväl utifrån uppsats rubriker, som av författarnas valda nyckelord. Nu är det är inte bara uppsatser som skrivs vid Försvarshögskolan. Det skrivs även exempelvis tentamensarbeten inom enskilda kurser. Avsikten är att ettantal (urval) av dessa texter ska finnas medtagna i sin helhet. I denna version, 2022, finns några texter från kurser som gavs förra året.

Strukturen i boken är att uppsatser är medtagna till rubrik, författare, textens sammanfattning samt slutligen en sökväg som leder till uppsatsen i sin helhet på DiVA. DiVA står för det Digitala vetenskapliga arkivet och utgör en gemensam söktjänst för forskningspublikationer och studentuppsatser producerade vid cirka 50 stycken lärosäten och forskningsinstitutioner. Tanken är att man ska få en översikt i årsboken av uppsatser för att sedan kunna välja ut och läsa en eller flera texter i sin helhet. Varför inte välja ut någon uppsats som ligger din verksamhet nära, bjud in författaren till din avdelning, och genomför en gemensam diskussion i samband med en samling ni ändå har. Kompetensutveckling innebär i slutändan att lära sig själv och andra, att faktiskt ta ansvar för professionens livslånga lärande.

Årsboken kommer primärt att vara en digital publikation, men kommer även i mindre upplaga finnas i en pappersutgåva. Den digitala versionen ger direkt tillgångtill länkar och sökvägar. Årsboken kommer att finnas tillgänglig i båda versionerna vid Anna-Lindh biblioteket.

Slutligen vill jag tacka mina medarbetare Kristin Ljungkvist, Knut-Olav Drivenes och Ola Larsson som med sitt engagemang, driv och kunskap gjort denna årsbok möjlig. Med förhoppning om en givande läsning.

Ola Bogren Redaktör

Civil wars that appear to observers to be the most complex—even using a colloquial understanding of the concept—are also those that seem to register the most intense fighting, the most prolonged spells of war, and the most resistance to durable conflict resolution. But what does it really mean for a civil war to be complex? We currently lack a concept of “civil war complexity” that can help us better understand the most important variations in civil wars across time and space. To address this gap we develop a conceptualization of “civil war complexity” consisting of three dimensions—“actor complexity,” “behavior complexity,” and “issue complexity”—and demonstrate how they manifest empirically. We also highlight this conceptualization’s utility—and the danger of overlooking it—through the case of Darfur. This conceptualization paves the way for a new research agenda that explores how civil wars differ in terms of their complexity, the causes and consequences of civil war complexity, and how to refine conflict resolution techniques and strategies.

Although conflict issues – the stated goals of actors engaged in conflict – hold a privileged position in many theoretical explanations of the occurrence, dynamics, and resolution of civil war, global issue data are scarce beyond datasets that focus on specific thematic areas. This article aims to bring issues into the forefront of civil war scholarship by presenting the UCDP Conflict Issues Dataset (CID). This global yearly dataset contains 14,832 conflict issues – divided, at the most disaggregated level, into 120 sub-categories – raised by armed non-state groups involved in intrastate armed conflict in 1989-2017. By bringing issues back in, the UCDP CID provides opportunities to reevaluate several central questions about the onset, duration, intensity, and resolution of civil war.

Begreppet uppdragstaktik omtalas ständigt med lovord efter de preussiska och tyska framgångarna tidigare i historien för att sedan bli etablerade i doktrinpublikationer. Denna artikel undersöker implementeringen av uppdragstaktiken i Sverige och USA med betoning på högre officersnivån utifrån olika försvarsgrenar. Resultaten visar hur avsaknaden av en djupare kulturell applikation är den gemensamma röda tråden. Något som betonas ytterligare via två amerikanska fallstudier, trots flera tidsåldrar emellan tyder båda på hur dysfunktionell kultur omöjliggör uppkomsten av uppdragstaktik. Artikeln avslutas med ett perspektiv från hemvärnet och slutligen den amerikanska rymdstyrkans förutsättningar för uppdragstaktik i en värld som alltmer präglas av teknikutveckling och gråzonsproblematik.

Genetic technologies are revolutionizing human health. In parallel, geopolitical instability has prompted renewed discussions on the risks of DNA technology being weaponized in international conflict. With today’s changing security environment, we argue that risk assessments must be broadened from genetically targeted weapons to a series of new domains.

Det ryska hotet har efter 2014 växt fram som en komplex utmaning imånga dimensioner: från militärt till desinformation och angrepp icyberdomänen. Utvecklingen i Väst för att bygga samhällsäkerhet harrymt en utmaning om vad som skall dimensionera systemen:nukleära-, konventionella-, terror- eller hybrid-hot. Rapportenundersöker hur dessa vägval sett ut i USA, Tyskland, Finland, debaltiska staterna och Polen.

Political scientists are often asked to make public assessments about strategic events.The tendency to rely on historical analogy is problematic as method, while academicmethod proper is to slow, and the problem addressed in this article is how to improveanalytical assessments in strategic affairs. I use and develop an analytical frameworkintroduced during the Cold War by Sovietologist Michael MccGwire in order to systematizeexpert assessments. In the empirical section I illustrate it with an inquiry into theprelude to the escalation in Ukraine 2022. The inquiry shows that the Russian actionsto subordinate Belarus in the Spring of 2021 is key to the understanding of the ensuingmilitary and diplomatic events that often was mistaken as Russian coercive diplomacy.The empirically grounded assessments show that the framework could have improvedprecision in assessments in the run-up to the approaching war.

In this chapter, we problematise the common association of women and peace by engaging instead with the varied feminist scholarship on peace. We anchor this discussion in Shampa Biswas’ postcolonial feminist account of nuclear power to highlight how feminist peace scholars and activists shift our attention from the potential future uses of nuclear weapons to the harm they cause right now. From production, to testing, to deployment, nuclear weapons (along with nuclear power for so-called peaceful purposes) often negatively affect communities already marginalised in the global political and economic order. This discussion of everyday nuclear politics allows us to highlight the feminist concept of a continuum of violence that spans peace- and wartime, drawing attention also to how the personal is political – and international. We expand on this through a discussion of feminist anti-nuclear activism and its practices of care. Alternative feminist futures, where security and peace are envisioned as processes to sustain and nurture life, depend not on the pursuit of power in hierarchical social orders, but instead on practices and ethics of mutual care and relationality.

In military and academic circles, there is today an acknowledgment that war is urban and, for some commentators, that the urban also is war—in the sense of an ongoing militarization of cities and urban environments. Indeed, that war is (partly) urban has been the case for as long as humans have lived in cities and towns. What is new at present though is the recognized topicality of the manifold links between urban geographies and war. Until the last couple of decades, urban war and urban warfare were considered phenomena either of the past or of the future, but less of the present. It was only in the late 1990s and early 2000s that the significance of urban spaces in and of war became widely acknowledged, partly as an effect of military and everyday wartime experiences from places such as Grozny, Mostar, and Sarajevo. Other coinciding developments involve the post–Cold War revival of geopolitics, as well as emergent scholarly linkages between (critical) urban geopolitics, on the one hand, and studies of the military, war, and peace, on the other hand. However, this is not to say that military organizations themselves have not historically been preoccupied with urban spaces. With a focus on both intrastate and interstate urban conflict and urban war, the contribution at hand offers an understanding both of the academic study of military urban geographies and of military geographical approaches to and imaginaries of urban warfare and urban space (without going into military urban warfare practices as such). This is done over five sections, each with a specific theme that also illustrates the many links between academia and the military when it comes to cities and urban environments. The first section frames the topic. It offers a broad introductory perspective in the sense of an overview of academic literatures that are often combined in the scholarly study of military urban geographies. First are the conventional and the critical approaches, respectively, to military geography, and second is the literature on urban war that to a varying degree targets geographical aspects. The second section addresses in more depth conventional military geographical approaches to urban spaces, in a way that includes both academic works and military treaties and doctrines. The third section develops further conventional military geographical approaches to and imaginaries of urban space. It details some of the more recent military operational and strategic modes of imagining and approaching urban geographies. The fourth section shifts the focus back to the scholarly study of military urban geographies, but from critical perspectives. As further developed here, critical scholarship on the topic shifts attention to the conditions and effects of military presence on cities and urban spaces and to how military operations are both constituted by and constitutive of urban spaces and sites. The fifth and final section introduces a specific subtheme in critical scholarship on urban spaces in and of war: the literature on urbicide.

Urban wars represent one – perhaps the – phenomenon in which war and cities take particular form in and through each other. With the epistemics of this reciprocal relationship being less studied, this article brings together the discourses on urban war and military interoperability respectively. Both discourses emphasise the question of knowledge. A shared geographic knowledge held by the service branches involved in a joint operation is considered key for interoperability to arise. In the urban wars discourse, the need and difficulty of ‘knowing’ the urban are stressed. However, we know less about whether military services involved in a joint urban operation produce distinct geographic knowledges and, if so, with what effects. With inspiration from critical scholarship on military geographies and from works on the history and geography of knowledge, this article develops a conceptual framework to target the mutually constitutive relationship between military epistemics and urban space in urban war. In it, I make a twofold argument, illustrated with the help of empirical examples from two Israeli joint urban military operations. First, the type of geographic knowledge that military ground and air forces produce as they seek to ‘make known’ particular urban spaces differs due to the services' distinct situatedness and relative distance to the urban environment. The produced types of military geographic knowledge, moreover, do not imply different perspectives on the urban as a pre-existing entity as much as they bring – in distinct fashions – the urban into being.

This article explores the question of human agency in military targeting. Targeting is one of the key drivers of war. When studied by academic disciplines, much interest has been devoted to the ethics and effects of military targeting. Less debated, but focused here, is the question of the conditions of human agency within military targeting. In the literature that does exist on this topic, there is a questioning of the traditional conception of human agency but at the same time a lack of closer conceptualisation of different kinds of articulations of human agency in the targeting process. In this article, we propose a recentring of human agency in critical scholarship on military targeting. With inspiration from Theodore Schatzki's work on ‘practice’, by analytically approaching targeting as a practice, and through various examples from Operation Iraqi Freedom, the article develops and illustrates a framework for the conceptualisation of human agencies in targeting. This framework distinguishes articulations of agency based on whether they furthered the (temporary) ordering of the targeting practice or challenged its internal organising elements. The study of military targeting is significant not least since the phenomenon is one of the key ‘engines’ and drivers of war's constant becoming.

In the last decades, humanitarian mine action (HMA) and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) processes have increasingly been recognized as essential to paving the way for sustainable development thanks to their contributions towards human security, livelihood, and access to services. The integration between the two processes, however, has not yet been fully addressed in the literature or practice. This paper seeks to identify areas where DDR and HMA intersect and, supported by anecdotal evidence, suggest a conceptual framework for future research and implementation. Most importantly, we hope to widen the debate on the potentially synergic relationship between HMA and DDR, flag possible fallacies or oversimplifications, and challenge solely “top-down” approaches.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of what the UN itself understands to be its first peacekeeping operation. It is therefore an appropriate time to reflect on the track record of UN peacekeeping in its efforts to try to maintain and realize peace and security. Moreover, this milestone invites us to ponder what lies ahead in the realm of peacekeeping. For this reason, this forum article brings together both academics and UN officials to assess the achievements and challenges of UN peacekeeping over the past 75 years. Through a dialogue among peacekeeping scholars and practitioners, we hope to identify current trends and developments in UN peacekeeping, as well as explore priorities for the future to improve the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations in terms of achieving their mandate objectives, such as maintaining peace, protecting civilians, promoting human rights, and facilitating reconciliation. This forum article is structured into six thematic sections, each shedding light on various aspects of UN peacekeeping: (1) foundational principles of UN peacekeeping - namely, consent, impartiality, and the (non-)use of force; (2) protection of civilians; (3) the primacy of politics; (4) early warning; (5) cooperation with regional organizations; and (6) the changing geopolitical landscape in which UN peacekeeping operates.

Scholars of Strategic Studies have seldom problematized the concept of military strategy beyond identifying the three elements constituting the phenomenon, that is ends, means and ways. Moreover, we see a need for contextualizing the presumably universal conceptualization of military strategy. This article contributes to previous research by operationalize each of the three elements one-step further, thereby introducing an analytical framework for systematic comparisons of states’ different priorities regarding military strategy. Additionally, in order to explain these different priorities, the proposed analytical framework introduces tools related to both relative power and position in the international system, and to regional systems and unit-level characteristics. The usefulness of the analytical framework is illustrated by a summary of some of our findings from a research project on comparative strategy including more than 30 states.

The limits of unity: Consensus or confrontation in shaping Swedish defence policy

How encompassing is the consensus among the political parties represented in the Swedish parliament when it comes to the military threat from Russia, the relations with NATO and the design of the Swedish Armed Forces? This article aims at answering this question by exploring the Swedish defence policy from the Russian war against Georgia in 2008 to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Our results indicate that the consensus among the parties increases with the escalation of the tensions in the international relations. Hence, we disagree with some results of previous research on Swedish security politics. We conclude that the tipping point regarding the Swedish application for NATO-membership was the existential dimension of the current Russian aggression. When the internal efforts to defend Sweden against a potential Russian attack was perceived not being enough, applying for membership was considered a necessity, not an option, among a majority of the parties.

This book analyses how and to what extent ex-communist states have adjusted their defence strategies since joining the EU and NATO, and how differences and similarities between their strategies can be explained.

Between 1999 and 2013, four phases of enlargement took place when the European Union (EU) and NATO allowed 11 new former communist states to enter both organisations. These states share some common attributes and experiences related to strategic culture and common experiences during the Cold War era that can potentially explain similarities in behaviour and preferences among them. However, the strategic adjustments among these states are far from uniform. In an effort to explain these differences, the book introduces three intervening variables: (1) differences in relative power and position in the international system, (2) national geographical characteristics; and (3) historical experiences related to formative periods of state-building processes as well as wars and armed conflicts. Empirically, the book strives to present and analyse the defence strategies of each of the new allies by conducting a structured focused comparison of official strategic documents from the twenty-first century for each of the 11 cases. Theoretically and methodologically, it introduces an analytical framework enabling us to explain both similarities and differences in the formulation of the strategies of the 11 states, and to shed light on their external and internal efforts to promote their strategic interest by operationalising the dependent variable - defence strategy. The analytical framework combines elements of structural realism with classical realism, and constructivist research on unit-level characteristics related to relative power and perceptions of strategic exposure.

This book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, European Union policy, NATO and International Relations in general.

This article explores the defense transformation processes during the two initial decades of the twenty-first century among the 11 former communist states that currently are members of both the European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The article introduces an analytical framework for systematic comparisons of states’ priorities regarding military strategy. Moreover, the article evaluates the influence of two intervening variables: (i) differences in relative power between middle powers and small states and (ii) differences in geographical exposure. Our findings suggest that differences related to these intervening variables correlate with differences in prioritized strategic ends, means, and ways.

This article contributes to theoretical integration in foreign policy analysis, by integrating two explanatory concepts that have mainly been used separately, namely the strategic culture of elites and the operational code of individual decision-makers. The explanatory power of using both concepts is illustrated in a case study of Australian foreign policy regarding the multinational coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The main argument is that strategic culture can provide a reasonable explanation for Australia's overall military engagement in the coalition. However, to explain Australia's approach to the coalition, strategic culture must be complemented with the operational code. The article suggests that the character of strategic culture can influence the opportunities for decision-makers to have an individual impact on foreign policy.

This article aims to broaden the understanding of Operational Depth (OD) by rethinking how it can be perceived. The emphasis when doing so is dedicated to cognitive effects, thus another dimension of depth, compared to the mainstream physical- or temporal approaches to depth in military thought. The empirical focus draws on Israel and explicitly the case of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah to provide an example where a lack of physical depth is skillfully handled, hence the title Wizards of Depth. The empiric inquiry is guided by an analytical framework, departing from a theoretical elaboration where OD is approached as a circular trinity: the ability to project, absorb, and manoeuver available coercive assets along offensive and defensive lines of operation. By using this definition in concert with the analytical framework, the article represents a mediation − a dialectic practice between the linear approaches to operations of the West and the more circular, often non-contiguous, and evolving perceptions found further east. When doing so, the article demonstrates how depth can be perceived in various ways, subsequently providing possible avenues to extend depth for actors beyond the Israeli example. A qualitative approach is employed, drawing on extensive fieldwork in Israel.

This article explores contemporary understandings of military duty and dynamics of cohesion during deployment with a focus on host–citizen relations. Duty is treated as a perception-based dynamic construct shaped, in part, by operational experiences. Traditionally, Western military duty is defined by conventional obligations of loyalty to the military unit and mission in the context of combat operations, in these ways linked to military cohesion. However, in response to increasingly “population-oriented” military operations, I argue the need to broaden the study of military duty and cohesion beyond interpersonal bonds of the military organization to include the role of host–citizen relations. In-depth interviews with Swedish service members reaffirm the centrality of conventional duty to the mission and military unit, yet also indicate varying levels and forms of obligations to local actors. Overall, understandings of duty matter to cohesion both as a unifying force and source of tension within the mission.

Civil-military relations are of outmost importance to mission coherence and effectiveness of contemporary multidimensional ‘integrated’ UN peace operations. In this literature review, we explore the matter of civil-military relations during missions with a focus on leadership strategies, practices and challenges of civilian protection. By strategic mission leadership we mean senior civilian and military leaders ‘in the field’ who are responsible, in different ways, for mission implementation. The review confers key theoretical and empirical insights on how and why senior civilian and military mission leaders (fail to) interact and coordinate to protect civilians in a coherent way ‘in the field’, thereby outlining how matters of leadership, civil-military relations and civilian protection are interconnected in contemporary UN peace operations. In doing so, a review of the current state of research helps to inform policymakers and practitioners on how to improve selection and preparation of strategic mission leaders in future integrated UN missions.

Generalstaben inrättades 1873 och utgjordes av en elit av särskilt utbildade officerare som skulle leda arméns utveckling av krigsplanläggning, mobiliseringsplaner och större övningar. Dessa officerare har fortsatt att prägla stabernas arbete under 150 år, fram till dagens Högkvarter, och i denna bok lyfts deras roll i försvaret fram, liksom stabens internationella och svenska historia.

Få militära verksamheter omges av en så tät mytbildning som specialförbanden. I den här boken får vi dock en grundlig inblick i verklighetens svenska specialoperationer och specialförbandens aktiviteter alltifrån medeltiden till 1990-talet. Boken är den första historiska analysen av fenomenet specialoperationer och okonventionella militära aktiviteter i Sverige.

Bland föregångarna till dagens specialförband hittar vi bland annat 1700-talets jägare, svenska kosacker, underrättelseagenter och kalla krigets olika jägarförband. Historien om dessa kan göras lång, men tyngdpunkten i denna volym ligger på tiden för det andra världskriget och kalla kriget.

Författarna berättar om kända och okända aktörer som finska officerare i den gemensamma krigsmakten före 1809, eller militärreformatorn Hugo Raab och andra frivilliga i Danmark 1864. Viktiga roller hade även de anonyma underrättelseoperatörerna under första världskriget och kalla kriget, men även i vidare kretsar välkända personer som språkvetaren Gunnar Jarring samt överbefälhavare som Helge Jung och Bengt Gustafsson.

Konceptet massa är ett välkänt begrepp genom krigshistorien. Antalet krigförande och vapen har ofta varit avgörande för att nå en seger eller ett önskat resultat. Den tekniska utvecklingen av vapen har förskjutit diskussionen inom denna krigföringsprincip mot ökad kraft och effekt med hjälp av banbrytande teknologier jämfört med den enkla numeriska överlägsenheten hos ens motståndare eller fiende. Varje domän av krigföringen och dess militära förmåga påverkas av denna massans dikotomi, när aktörerna strukturerar sina väpnade styrkor och anskaffar vapen. Däremot har denna princip och övergången till banbrytande teknologier för kraftmultiplikation och effektackumulering givits en än mer framträdande roll inom luftstridskrafterna och luftkrigsdomänen. Detta tack vare luftstridskrafternas inneboende egenskaper (d v s hastighet, räckvidd, flexibilitet och mångsidighet). Denna artikel diskuterar principen om massa och spjutspetsteknologi i luftkriget om Ukraina. Följaktligen kommer artikeln att undersöka vilka brister i massan och numerär överlägsenhet som var evident i luftkriget och varför. Vidare diskuteras hur de ukrainska väpnade styrkorna (UAF) reducerade rysk antalsmässig överlägsenhet i luften, liksom beskrivs vilka preliminära faktorer som kan pekas ut för vidare diskussion om mass- och banbrytande teknologier för modern och framtida luftkrigföring.

In 1991, an ethnically diverse and peaceful region of Europe descended into violence, lawlessness, bitter hatred and chaos, almost overnight to the bewilderment of international observers. Communities fractured along lines of ethnic and religious affiliation, and the ensuing fighting was deeply personal, resulting in horrific brutality, rape, torture and genocide, causing the deaths of thousands of people. Drawing on the latest research for this new edition, Alastair Finlan examines the internal upheavals of the former Yugoslavia and their international implications, including the failure of the Vance-Owen plan; the first use of NATO in a combat role and in peace enforcement; and the war in Kosovo, unsanctioned by the UN but prosecuted by NATO forces to prevent the ethnic cleansing of the region.

Updated and revised, with specially commissioned colour maps and all new images throughout, this is a concise overview of the tragic conflict in former Yugoslavia and its significant consequences.

This handbook offers a collection of cutting-edge essays on all aspects of strategic culture by a mix of international scholars, consultants, military officers, and policymakers.

The volume explicitly addresses the analytical conundrums faced by scholars who wish to employ or generate strategic cultural insights, with substantive commentary on defining and scoping strategic culture, analytic frameworks and approaches, levels of analysis, sources of strategic culture, and modalities of change in strategic culture. The chapters engage strategic culture at the civilizational, regional, supra-national, national, non-state actor, and organizational levels. The volume is divided into five thematic parts, which will appeal to both students who are new to the subject and scholars who wish to incorporate strategic culture into their toolbox of analytical techniques. Part I assesses the evolving theoretical strengths and weaknesses of the field. Part II lays out elements of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the field, including sources and components of strategic culture. Part III presents a number of national strategic cultural profiles, representing the state of contemporary strategic culture scholarship. Part IV addresses the utility of strategic culture for practitioners and scholars. Part V summarizes the key theoretical and practical insights offered by the volume’s contributors.

This handbook will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, defense studies, security studies, and international relations in general, as well as to professional practitioners.