Over the last thirty years, suggestions for how to develop defence capability have developed rapidly. However, supporting theory and structured concept development lag behind. Despite this imbalance, countries need to continuously spend resources on defence development. This study identifies central challenges in relation to the scientific perspectives and approaches needed to support the development of defence capability. The results show that the support for developing interactions between technology and social components is especially weak and that relevant supporting theories and methods from related fields are not considered. This study also shows that it is important to be able to address these questions from various perspectives and not to be limited by a specific scientific tradition. Finally, this study also identifies a possible emerging cluster of reports on capability-related research that provide a base for a much-needed cross-disciplinary approach to the development of defence capability.
Security and sustainability are prioritized goals in the “Western liberal” world. Maintaining democratic resources while simultaneously strengthening society’s ability to deal with security issues frmly resonates with ideals associated with social sustainability. However, merging normative theories like security and social sustainability produces conceptual difculties that are hard to resolve. Based on key literature in this feld and policy documents from the UN, this article uses conceptual analysis to investigate what boundaries and openings three distinct perspectives of the connection between social sustainability and security might produce. The perspectives chosen as illustrative tools are paradox, co-production, and deconstruction. The paradox perspective pronounces inherently divergent qualities of sustainability and security, which implies a trade-of situation. In contrast, the co-production perspective views social sustainability as a critical component in security issues, while security, in turn, is a prerequisite for sustainability. A third perspective, deconstruction, highlights underlying processes that produce and prioritize specifc meanings. The perspectives of paradox, co-production, and deconstruction identify how competing values operate in conceptual confgurations, highlighting the limitations and possibilities of security measures to accommodate values of social sustainability. Applying distinct approaches as illustrations for disparate ideological standpoints can deepen the knowledge of how multiple and occasionally competing outcomes are formed while considering the normative foundations enfolding inquiries of security responses to societal challenges
Project Maven is an AI-induced information technology for military applications initiated by the United States Department of Defence (DoD) in 2017 and originally signed on to a civilian contractor, namely Google. However, this initiative raised massive resistance from a substantial amount of Google employees, eventually leading to the contract's annulation. This article uses narrative analysis to investigate enabling and constraining arguments of AI for military purposes that appeared in the debate following the public announcement of Project Maven. In addition, the article highlights the co-production of ethics, technology, and the complex issues that arise from civilian-military exchanges in technology development. Enabling arguments associated with consequentialist ethics are identified as narratives of accuracy and maintenance. Accuracy constitutes a guiding principle for saving civilian lives, while maintenance is directed at keeping the power balance intact. In contrast, constraining arguments proceed from deontological ethics that emphasize disengagement and ambivalence. Disengagement amplifies a civilian/military divide, while ambivalence exhibits conflicting views concerning the prospect of supplementing technological solutions that have the potential to contribute to war and civilian casualties. Conclusively, security narratives and technological storytelling are important aspects to consider since they hold a performative function that influences the framing and mobilization of security and technology development.
This study investigates the cultural expressions of traditional socialization activities that occur in connection with cadets attending the 3-year Officers Programme at Karlberg in Sweden, in order to analyze how masculinity norms in a male-dominated military organization are produced and sustained. A narrative analysis method was used to interpret the meaning of the campus traditions described in interviews made with five cadets together with the student handbook for newly arrived cadets ‘Ruki’. Three distinct traditions were analyzed: ‘The Despicable Philquist’, ‘The Viking Festivity’, and ‘Lifning’. Three themes that describe these traditions, respectively, were identified: separation, homosociality, and fraternization. Separation specifies a formation of a masculine and militarized subjectivity that separates the dichotomous categories of civilian – military. Homosociality describes activities that reproduce masculine norms where men relate to other men. Lastly, fraternization is used to describe socialization activities where the main purpose is to create cohesion. The contribution of this article is that it confirms how performatory rituals in the Military Academy functions to enforce cohesion that is modeled on masculinity norms, while simultaneously identifying a growing dissonance between society’s demands for diversity and the military’s basic aspiration for cohesion.
Samverkan är ett svårfångat fenomen med många olika definitioner där det övergripandemålet är ”att arbeta tillsammans mot ett gemensamt mål eller för ett gemensamt syfte”(Svedin, 2015 s. 101). Termen beskrivs ofta som ett idealt tillstånd (Carlström & Berlin,2009) men innebär i realiteten inneboende intressekonflikter där strävan efter att skapa engemensam målbild kan innebära en konkurrenssituation (Uhr, 2011). Den modernakrishanteringen utgår i grunden från de beroendeförhållanden, kontakter och densamverkan som redan existerar mellan civila och militära organisationer under normalaförhållanden, och är därför beroende på hur pass väl utvecklade kontakter de olika aktörernahar med varandra före en kris uppstår (Bharosa, 2009; MSB 2014; Veibäck et. al, 2017).Denna text syftar till att ge läsaren en överskådlig bild av ett mycket komplext och brettämne, med olika möjliga teoretiska infallsvinklar. Texten inleder med en kortare redogörelseför olika relevanta teoretiska begrepp som kopplas ihop med styrning i samverkan i aktuellforskning som skett i anslutning till civil-militära relationer i internationella insatser,forskning som belyser social-psykologiska faktorer, samt forskning som har gjorts påoffentlig förvaltning (Svedin, 2009). Det övergripande temat för texten är styrning isamverkan där områden som behandlas är; ledarskap vilket fokuserar på styrning isamverkan, ledarskapsparadoxen samt ledarskapets kritiska faser. Därefter följerinformationsdelning i samverkan som ett rent funktionellt perspektiv påsamverkansstyrning. Sedan följer ett avsnitt som tittar på samverkansituationen utifrån ettsocial-psykologiskt perspektiv. Övergripande handlar dessa studier om den mänskligatendensen att kategorisera människor genom social stereotypisering (Allport, 1954.Fördomar uppstår genom social identifikation (Ashforth & Mael, 1989 ) som uppstår i olikakulturella miljöer. Avsnittet tittar även på förtroende och kontroll som är komplimenterandefaktorer (Costa & Bijlsma-Frankema, 2007), ju mer förtroende organisationer har förvarandra desto mindre kontroll behöver de utöva och vice versa. Texten avslutas med attlyfta tillit och socialt kapital som nödvändiga komponenter för en lyckadsamverkansstyrning.
One important objective of the Swedish Armed Forces, as expressed in the plan for implementing gender mainstreaming from 2015 onwards, is to increase the number of women in the organization, especially in the higher ranks. Recruiting more women to the Officers’ Programme, while at the same time ensuring that women who have already enrolled as officers will remain in the military, are therefore of utter importance. This article is based on a qualitative study where six recent and present female cadets were interviewed focusing on their experiences of their time in preparing to become officers at the Swedish Military Academy as well as how they perceive a future career with in the Swedish Armed Forces. A thematic analysis was used to analyze the results from which three dimensions emerged : ambition, culture and visibility. Ambition relates to expectations before and during the education, personal grit, perceived demands and family planning. Culture covers traditions, personal treatment and jargon, idealizing of masculinity, as well as servicewomen’s adaptation strategies. The last dimension, visibility, derives from the way females are made visible in the form of “tokens”, and is enhanced through the recruitment and marketing campaigns of the Swedish Armed Forces where women are often singled out as the main focus. Women are made visible because of their sex, not for their achievements. The study suggests that the Swedish Armed Forces should reconsider their focus on women in their internal and external communication. Further suggestions include involving lower-ranking defence employees in the work related to implementing the value system, and seeing to it that its practical application is an integrated part of the education at the Officers’ Programme, while also introducing a mentorship programme for female cadets.
Based on a report made by the Swedish Higher Education Authority from 2017, which covered all of Sweden’s 47 higher education institutions, this paper examines the work with sustainable development at universities. The text also gives suggestions on how the area could be developed for those institutions in higher education that have not yet measured up to the criteria for successful sustainability work. The analysis bases its findings on the Swedish National Defense University as a case and a representative for a smaller university but identifies general lessons that are applicable to other universities. The text also identifies lessons from current pedagogical research in higher education and highlights success factors taken from three other higher education institutions that have received high ratings for their sustainability work. The universities that have been successful in this work show that integrating a sustainability approach initially in the daily operations does not have to include all aspects of sustainable development in business planning and education. On the other hand, the aim must be clearly set on a holistic and interdisciplinary approach, where education for sustainability initially creates a base from where issues that are more complex can be included, and generate education specifically aimed at promoting sustainable development.
One important objective of the Swedish Armed Forces, which is expressed in the plan for implementing gender mainstreaming from 2015, is to increase the number of women in the organization and especially in the higher ranks. Recruiting more women to the officers’ program, while at the same time ensuring that women who have already enrolled as officers will remain in their occupation, is therefore of utmost importance. This chapter is based on a previously made qualitative study where six female cadets were interviewed regarding experiences of their time in training to become officers at the Swedish military academy, as well as how they perceive a future career in the Swedish Armed Forces. The result that emerged was analyzed as three factors: ambition, culture, and visibility. When reviewing the material from a leadership perspective, destructive leadership behaviors at strategic levels were identified as influencing the experiences of the cadets. Seen through a gender lens, destructive leadership in the Swedish Armed Forces describes a pattern where the design of equality work, which is based on good intentions, in some cases fosters leadership behaviors that have a negative impact on the room of action of women in the organization.