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Syftet med denna studie är att utforska vilken betydelse militära gruppchefer tillmäter psykologisk trygghet för att gruppen ska kunna lösa sina uppgifter, samt hur de hanterar balansen mellan krav på disciplin och ett öppet klimat. Studien har en explorativ och beskrivande design med abduktiv ansats och bygger på semistrukturerade intervjuer med åtta gruppchefer från två förband. Det empiriska materialet analyserades genom tematisk analys. Resultatet bidrar till att visa att psykologisk trygghet uppfattas som en avgörande faktor för gruppens prestation, lärande och initiativförmåga, då den möjliggör att misstag diskuteras, att soldater vågar be om hjälp och att förbättringsförslag förs fram. Ledarna beskriver ett stort personligt ansvar för att aktivt skapa trygghet genom föregångsmannaskap, transparens, individanpassning och genom att själva visa sårbarhet och erkänna misstag. Samtidigt framträder en ständig balans mellan auktoritet i skarpa och tidspressade situationer och öppenhet i reflekterande faser, vilket beskrivs som en tempoväxling i ledarskapet. Hierarkin upplevs både som en möjliggörande struktur som skapar tydlighet och som ett potentiellt hinder när maktavståndet ökar. Studiens huvudsakliga slutsats är att psykologisk trygghet och militär hierarki inte står i motsättning till varandra, utan kan integreras genom ett situationsanpassat ledarskap där fackmässig kompetens utgör grunden för legitimitet och möjliggör öppenhet, lärande och utveckling.

This study explains why two contemporary European frigate programmes—the British Type 31 and the German F126—developed into larger and more complex warships despite explicit ambitions for simplicity and cost control. Using theory-testing process tracing, the study evaluates competing Path Dependence and Rational Choice explanations across the procurement processes. The analysis shows that smaller platforms were technically feasible but rendered institutionally unrealistic by entrenched standards, doctrinal assumptions, regulatory requirements, and industrial continuities that constrained decision-making early in the process. While rational arguments were present, they primarily served to justify outcomes shaped by these structures. The study concludes that Path Dependence provides the most convincing explanation and highlights the difficulty of achieving transformative change in defence procurement without early structural reform.

Research problem: To improve and grow it is necessary to analyze earlier experiences of technology shifts. After World War II, Swedish society and its military forces went through a rapid regime shift with motorization – engines replaced horses. There are no analyses of how this affected the armed forces, their horses and the staff that took care of them. 

Purpose of study: To describe and analyze how care and health of army horses was affected during the motorization of the army 1945-1955 and, in a wider perspective, investigate and understand how technology shifts affect the armed forces, by identifying inertia. 

Method: Eleven annual official reports from the Veterinary Surgeon General of the Swedish army, which include both a summary of the horse health and maintenance for each year and data sets of diseases and their outcomes, were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitively.

Results and Conclusion: Several frictions related to human resource issues were identified, including lack of interested and qualified recruits for horse placement, presumed to be due to the motorization having made professions such as horse cart driver and farrier redundant.  Lack of qualified staff contributed to increased leg fractures after fights between horses. Horse temperamental disorders increased, mainly in boarded warmblood horses at farms where the farmers had no warmblood experience. Furthermore, minimal effort was made to remedy the horse facilities, despite repeated reports of disrepair and unacceptable building conditions. This may have been caused by miscommunications between the different levels of decision, where the heads have decided that horses should be removed from the army, and those working at regiment-level were unaware or unwilling to accept this decision. Another important issue was that the farmers did not maintain the boarded horses in sufficient shape and stamina for the refresher meetings, which meant that in case of mobilization the army would have insufficient horsepower to maintain mobility.       

This study examines why two military innovation processes developed within the same organizational and political context can result in divergent outcomes. Through a comparative case study of two modernization programs in the U.S. Army, Future Combat Systems and Stryker Brigade Combat Team, the analysis focuses on how the internal dynamics of innovation processes shape their eventual results. Existing research on military innovation has largely emphasized successful cases and structural explanations for why innovation occurs. In contrast, this study adopts a process-oriented analytical framework to conduct a structured comparison of the programs’ design, implementation, and organizational conditions. The findings indicate that differences in how critical thinking were applied within each program contributed significantly to their divergent outcomes. The study contributes to the literature on military innovation and challenges the assumption that innovation is inherently synonymous with success.

This chapter examines the evolution of Ukrainian military symbolism since independence in 1991, focusing on how formative events, especially Russia’s invasions in 2014 and 2022, have reshaped symbols, uses of history, and traditions. Drawing on concepts of military culture and the uses of history, it analyses changes in emblems, honorary unit names, and military holidays. The study highlights the interplay between politics, society, and military institutions in forging a new military symbolic space. It reveals Ukraine’s armed forces’ long transition from Soviet legacies to a national military culture rooted in new historical consciousness and civic values.

This study examines how willingness to defend is constructed in Swedish security policy discourse through the interaction of linguistic framing and emotion. Rather than treating willingness to defend as a fixed or analytically given concept, the study conceptualises it as a societal commitment shaped through political and institutional communication. Drawing on framing analysis and Emotion Discourse Analysis, operationalised through the analytical tool Emotion Direction Legitimation Analysis (EDLA), the study analyses public speeches by political, institutional and symbolic actors from 2025.

The analysis identifies three overarching themes. Societal cohesion, responsibility, and action. Together the themes construct willingness to defend as a normative construction of shared societal responsibility in a context without ongoing war. Through linguistic framing and emotional articulation, meaning-making processes are formed that establish understandings of what is presented as legitimate, necessary, and morally appropriate in relation to security and defence.

This thesis examines how military professionalization is realized in the everyday practice of Swedish Air Force officers. Situated within war studies, the study explores how professional expertise is developed and sustained through the interaction of formal education, organizational conditions, and service demands. Empirically, the thesis draws on a qualitative case study at Blekinge Air Wing, using semi-structured interviews. The material is analyzed through an ideal-type approach, identifying three professionalization logics: practice-driven professionalization, education-driven professionalization, and professionalization through expected expertise. These logics are subsequently related to Karl Ydén’s tentative model for analyzing military professionalism, applied as a diagnostic tool to identify patterns of fit and misfit between education, occupational practice, and organizational expectations of expertise. The findings contribute a practice-oriented analytical approach for studying Military Education (PME) in organizationally complex military settings.

This study examines how grey-zone ambiguity is understood and handled in the process of establishing compatible situational awareness within Sweden’s decentralized total defence system, focusing on the energy supply sector. Using an abductive content analysis with an interpretive approach, it adopts an exploratory case study design based on scenario-driven focus group discussions, applying Distributed Situation Awareness, Hybridity Blizzard Model and Fort logic.

The findings illustrate a paradox: while the sector gives expression to strong operational robustness, it is perceived as strategically vulnerable due to vertical information gaps. Local actors prioritize restoration over attribution, which is interpreted as a risk where coordinated hybrid actions are absorbed into routine disturbances. The absence of proactive top-down intelligence sharing is understood as a factor that constrains the development of compatible situational awareness across levels.

The study indicates that resilience in the grey zone depends on the quality of vertical information links enabling strategic interpretation of ambiguous events.

Sweden’s accession to NATO entails a logistical institutional transition for the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF). This thesis examines how NATO’s logistical ideas are institutionalized within the SAF following accession. The study applies to a qualitative single-case study design based on semi-structured interviews. The analysis is guided by Richard W. Scott’s institutional framework, focusing on regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive mechanisms.

The findings show that NATO’s logistical ideas are not implemented through full adoption, but through a gradual and selective process of institutional translation. Institutionalization is driven by perceived requirements and expectations associated with NATO membership. The process is shaped by professional ideals, administrative legacies, and a risk-averse organizational culture. The concept of sustainment is reinterpreted through existing Swedish understandings of logistics, resulting in adaptation rather than replacement.  Institutionalization proceeds largely through exercises, improvisation, and individual agency.

The thesis concludes that NATO integration in military logistics depends less on formal acceptance of alliance ideas than on alignment between institutional structures, professional norms, and broader societal coordination.

This study examines the factors shaping the implementation of NATO doctrines for Military Strategic Communications (StratCom) during Sweden’s ongoing integration into the Alliance. Using an interpretive qualitative design based on semi-structured interviews, the study applies thematic analysis informed by organizational theory. The analysis identifies three structural factors - coordination, doctrine and organizational design - and three human resources and symbolic factors - skills supply, skills development and organizational culture - that jointly influence how StratCom is implemented by the Swedish Armed Forces. The findings reveal persistent tensions related to leadership, authority, mandates, professional skills and military culture. In particular, the study shows that doctrinal alignment with NATO is constrained less by formal doctrine and more by organizational power structures and professional identity. Ultimately, competence and military culture emerge as the key limiting factors for Sweden’s ability to operationalize NATO’s doctrinal approach to StratCom.

Avskräckning är ett omfattande ämne som studerats under årtusenden. Denna korta text avhandlar de mest centrala delarna av avskräckning som nationell säkerhetsstrategi. Texten syftar till att hjälpa läsaren att snabbare kunna tillägna sig mer avancerade eller specialiserade tankar och skrifter. Fokus är på relevanta och klargörande begrepp. Historiska fall används för att exemplifiera snarare än för att leda i bevis.

This study aims to analyze whether there are differences in employees’ perceptions of regimental commanders’ indirect leadership between units with lower and higher rates of early discharge among conscripts. The study is based on Larsson et al.’s model of indirect leadership and applies a quantitative cross-sectional design using data from the Swedish Armed Forces’ employee survey (FM Vind 2024) combined with statistics on early discharges provided by the Swedish Defence Conscription and Assessment Agency. The sample consists of 597 employees from nine units conducting basic military training. Units were divided into two groups based on rates of early discharge and compared across five indicators of indirect leadership. Group differences were analyzed using Welch’s t-test. The results show statistically significant differences across all five indicators. Units with lower rates of early discharge consistently report higher levels of perceived engagement, clarity in handling issues raised in the chain of command, safety conditions, information dissemination, and overall trust in leadership. The findings indicate that regimental commanders’ indirect leadership may constitute a relevant organizational factor in relation to early discharge among conscripts. However, the study does not allow for causal conclusions and the results should be interpreted as indications of covariation. The study contributes a quantitative perspective on indirect leadership in a military context and highlights early discharge as an organizational phenomenon in which higher-level leadership may play a significant role.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur det formella mentorskapet i armén utövas för nyanställda officerare, vilka effekter det uppfattas bidra till och vilka utvecklingsmöjligheter som kan identifieras. Studien genomfördes som en kvalitativ intervjustudie med abduktiv ansats där 11 semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes vid tre arméförband. Respondenterna bestod av HR-chefer, mentorprogramsansvariga, mentorer och adepter. Empirin analyserades med tematisk analys och en anpassning av Wanberg m.fl. (2003) konceptuella ramverk. Resultatet visar att mentorskapet varierar beroende på lokala förutsättningar och upplevs sakna styrning över organisationsenhetsnivån. Detta belyser behovet av tydligare strukturer och organisatoriskt stöd för att bättre stödja den långsiktiga personalförsörjningen. 

Denna studie syftar till att skapa förståelse för hur första linjens chefer i svenska stridsflygdivisioner upplever att organisatoriska förutsättningar påverkar deras möjligheter att utöva ledarskap under förberedelser inför och genomförande av en Nato-relaterad internationell operation. Studien har genomförts som en kvalitativ semi-strukturerad intervjustudie på fem första linjens chefer från svenska stridsflygdivisioner. Det empiriska materialet analyserades med tematisk analys. Resultatet visar tre övergripande teman: Ledarskapets organisatoriska handlingsutrymme, Organisatoriska friktioner samt Organisatorisk anpassning och omformning. Centrala möjliggörande villkor är tydlighet, tillitsbaserad delegering, en stark professionell kultur samt stöd och mandat från närmaste chef. Samtidigt framträder betydande begränsningar kopplade till resurs–uppgiftsobalans, korta och instabila planeringsförutsättningar, parallella strukturer samt avtal och processer som inte är anpassade till Nato-kontexten. Studien visar att chefers handlingsutrymme i hög grad formas av organisatoriska processer och strukturer, vilka sätter ramarna för individuella ledarbeteenden. En viktig slutsats är att den pågående omställningen mot ökat internationellt åtagande riskerar att förstärka en situation av hög arbetsbelastning och destruktiv tillväxt, samtidigt som den starka organisationskulturen fungerar som en nödvändig men otillräcklig motvikt till dessa utmaningar.

The study examines how and why structural measures are presented as necessary in the Swedish Armed Forces’ adaptation to a changing world. Using Carol Bacchi’s framework What’s the Problem Represented to be (WPR), a discursive analysis is conducted of the Armed Forces’ decision on reorganisation in 2025. The analysis shows that the decision constructs organisational problems as structural and this reproduces a governance logic where structure appears to handle uncertainty and achieve military effectiveness. As a result, the solutions are rendered predominantly structural, while alternative problem representations and courses of action are silenced. The study identifies central assumptions and silences that enable this problem representation, including ideas of command and control, clarity, and disposal authority. By making these discourse conditions visible, the study contributes to professional reflection by opening up space for a critical examination of how organisational problems are understood and legitimised within the Swedish Armed Forces.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka vilka processer och faktorer arméofficerare med chefserfarenhet upplever påverkar hur ledarutveckling sker och prioriteras inom Försvarsmakten, samt att bidra med fördjupad kunskap om hur ledar- och ledarskapsutveckling realiseras i praktiken. Studien genomfördes med en induktiv ansats och baserades på semi-strukturerade intervjuer med fem arméofficerare. Det empiriska materialet analyserades genom tematisk analys. Resultaten visar att ledarutveckling i hög grad formas genom erfarenhetsbaserade och individnära processer, medan de organisatoriska mekanismer som skulle kunna strukturera, integrera och förstärka dessa erfarenheter framstår som svagt koordinerade. Tre övergripande teman identifierades: egen utveckling till och som ledare, organisatoriska villkor och utmaningar samt chefens egen inställning och strategier. Analysen indikerar ett glapp mellan Försvarsmaktens uttalade ledarideal och hur ledar- och ledarskapsutveckling genomförs i praktiken. Utvecklingen av ledarskap som kollektiv och organisatorisk förmåga framstår i stor utsträckning som beroende av enskilda chefers initiativ snarare än av institutionellt förankrade strukturer. Studien bidrar genom att tydliggöra samspelet mellan möjliggörande och begränsande faktorer samt de processer som binder samman dessa i ett flernivåperspektiv, och pekar på behovet av mer integrerade och strategiskt samordnade utvecklingsmekanismer för en långsiktigt hållbar ledarskapsutveckling inom Försvarsmakten

Studiens syfte är att analysera vilka faktorer som påverkar Arméns sammanhållna ochstrukturerade erfarenhetshantering, hur processen fungerar i praktiken samt vilkautvecklingsmöjligheter som kan stärka organisationens fortsatta förmågeutveckling. Studienbygger på en kvalitativ forskningsdesign som kombinerar lärandeteorier med tiosemistrukturerade intervjuer med erfarna officerare. Materialet analyseras genom tematiskanalys och tolkas med stöd av Crossan et al:s 4I-modell samt Argyris teori om single- ochdouble-loop learning. Resultatet visar att Arméns erfarenhetshantering präglas av fragmenteradstruktur, otydliga processer, personberoende arbetssätt och resursbrist. Lärande skerkontinuerligt på individ- och gruppnivå, främst genom observationer, kollegiala samtal ochlokala forum, vilket innebär att de inledande stegen i 4I-modellen fungerar väl. Däremot ärintegrering och institutionalisering svagt utvecklade, vilket leder till ett systematisktlärandeläckage. Studien visar att Armén uppvisar starkt vardagligt lärande men saknarförutsättningar för att omsätta erfarenheter i varaktig organisatorisk utveckling.

High-resolution ocean models are increasingly used to support military forecasting in complex coastal environments, yet their practical value depends on how model behaviour translates into operational understanding. This study evaluates the performance of the high-resolution oceanographic model NEMO_sthlm in southern Mysingen, Stockholm archipelago region, with focus on its ability to reproduce observed temperature and salinity structures relevant to military METOC forecasting. 

Using a Design Science Research approach, model output is compared with in situ CTD observations collected during a late-summer field campaign and also compared with two regional oceanographic models. Quantitative evaluation shows that NEMO_sthlm captures the overall hydrographic structure of the area, including stratification and water-mass characteristics, while exhibiting statistically significant but systemic model-observation differences. These differences are primarily linked to consistent bias in thermocline and halocline placement, indicating stable and interpretable model behaviour. 

The analysis demonstrates that predictable and physically interpretable error patterns allow model output to be meaningfully integrated into forecasting practise. The study shows how quantitative evaluation can be linked to operational interpretation, reinforcing the role of high-resolution models as tools for understanding and forecast interpretation in littoral waters.

This thesis encompasses learning in military organisations and how war experiences alter officer’s training and education. Sources from the Swedish Armed Forces officer’s training schools during 1910-1925 are systematically and qualitatively examined. The period contains peace, war, and post-war circumstances. The officer’s education and training system in Sweden is compared to Germany’s dito to create a comparative study of a war-fighting country and a non-fighting country, and the possible affect a war had on their armed forces’ officer’s training, respectively. The thesis also contains comparisons between the branches, analysing changes in both the army and marine schools’ curricula in both countries.

Changes in the curricula from all the war schools in Sweden during the period show some signs of learning from the First World War, even though Sweden did not take part in the war. However, there are differences between the different schools, branches, as well as between the countries. In essence, the Swedish Armed Forces’ officer’s training system was kept intact during and after the war, albeit with some changes. The German system was re-made during the war, and again after. The study shows nuances of adaptation and indicates some lessons learned from the First World War in Sweden, not previously covered in research.

 Denna studie antar rysk-ukrainska kriget 2022 som strategisk chock på vilken Nato-länderna reagerar genom att kraftigt utöka militära utgifter. Genom regressionsanalys av paneldata dras flera viktiga slutsatser varav en påvisar ett förändrat beteende bland allierade jämfört med tidigare forskningsresultat. Chock, till följd av ryska hot, leder till signifikant minskad friåkning i alliansen, något som varit debatterat i forskning och bland praktiker sedan åtminstone sextiotalet. Vidare utgörs den starkaste prediktorn för utökade militära utgifter efter 2022, mätt som andel av BNP, av delad landgräns med Ryssland. Denna variabels förklaringskraft överträffar traditionella operationaliseringar av geografiska variabler såsom avstånd mellan landgränser och avstånd mellan huvudstäder. Studiens teoretiska grund utgörs av kollektiv avskräckning i allianser och hur ekonomisk börda fördelas mellan allierade. Empiriskt fokus är förändring i Nato-allierades militära kostnader efter 2022.

The war in Ukraine is often portrayed as a transparent battlefield, where ISR makes concealment difficult. Yet Ukrainian forces achieved operational surprise when they crossed into Russia’s Kursk Oblast on the 6th of August 2024. This thesis explains how surprise was possible under high transparency by tracing the causal mechanisms behind the success of the operation. Using a theory-testing single-case design and process tracing, the study operationalizes six routes to surprise—time, space, method, technology, deception, and OPSEC—and evaluates predicted empirical traces in open-source material (institutional reporting, news articles, social media, and statements). The thesis’s main contribution is the development of a synthesized theoretical framework for achieving military surprise on a transparent battlefield by creating, protecting, and exploiting localized, temporary windows of opacity. It further identifies counter-ISR as a pivotal enabling factor that warrants treatment as a distinct component of surprise generation.

This study examines how bureaucratization is described and understood in the Swedish Armed Forces’ leadership communication. Using Carol Bacchi’s What’s the Problem Represented to be? (WPR) approach, the analysis explores how responsibility, risk and governance are framed in the official podcast Gå på, marsch! The results show that bureaucratic problems are mainly presented as issues of professional culture and individual attitudes, rather than as consequences of structural or institutional conditions. Through concepts such as risk appetite and responsibility, officers are described both as part of the problem and as the key to the solution. By combining WPR with Meir Finkel’s theory of military flexibility and March and Olsen’s logic of appropriateness, the study shows how leadership language shapes what is seen as legitimate action. The findings suggest that leadership communication works as a form of internal governance by defining where responsibility is placed and which changes appear possible.

This study examines the explanatory value of sea power theory in the Ukrainian sea denial campaign in the Black Sea, advancing the hypothesis that technological development has generated a risk asymmetry that affects its core assumptions. In light of this, risk theory is applied as a complement to existing sea power theory using congruence analysis. The findings suggest that current theory requires revision to account for shifts in the value of geography, weaponry and naval bases. The growing salience of innovation is likewise apparent. Moreover, the analysis identifies systematic psychological factors that hold the potential to expand existing theories of sea power.

This thesis addresses the strategic challenge of reinforcing the Baltics, mitigating the Suwałki Gap issue, in the context of Sweden’s NATO accession. Historically, Nordic military mobility focused on a north-south axis to defend the High-North. However, the shifting security environment necessitates a critical analysis of the west-to-east axis to ensure NATO and Euro-Atlantic sustainment of the Baltics, leveraging Sweden’s new role as a transit and Host Nation Support country. Given the lack of a theory-derived military sustainment line criteria model, this research constructs an innovative Supply Chain Risk Management theory derived Criteria Model as an evaluation tool. Using this tool, three routes from Norway to Sweden and a Baltic SPOD are analysed and ranked. The findings explain required infrastructure improvements and capability development in the Nordics necessary to enable a viable bypass of the Suwałki corridor, confirming whether the problem is solved, or significant work remains to ensure effective reinforcement.

Denna studie undersöker hur psykologiska behov, självbestämd motivation, upplevt autonomistödjande ledarskap och organisatoriska förutsättningar relaterar till fysiska träningsbeteenden under första terminen av officersprogrammet. Självbestämmandeteorin (Self-Determination Theory; SDT) utgör teoretiskt ramverk och en kvantitativ tvärsnittsstudie genomfördes där 318 kadetter besvarade enkäten. Analysen genomfördes med korrelations- och hierarkisk regressionsanalys för att prova två hypoteser: (H1) Behovstillfredsställelse och självbestämd motivation har ett positivt samband med fysisk träning. (H2) Autonomistödjande ledarskap och organisatoriska förutsättningar har ett positivt samband med behovstillfredsställelse, självbestämd motivation och graden av fysisk träning. Resultatet visar att behovstillfredsställelse och självbestämd motivation är starkt relaterad till fysisk träningsmängd och frekvens, där självbestämd motivation var den starkaste prediktorn. Resultatet påvisar även att självbestämd motivation medierar behovstillfredsställelse och fysisk träning, vilket visar att behovstillfredsställelse inom en norm och regelstyrd militär kontext verkar genom psykologiska mekanismer snarare än direkt på beteendeeffekter. Resultatet visar även att upplevda organisatoriska förutsättningar och autonomistödjande ledarskap har ett tydligt samband med tillfredsställelsen av de grundläggande behoven och graden av självbestämd motivation, men saknar direkt koppling till fysisk träning och påverkar således beteendet indirekt.

This thesis examines the large-scale evacuation exercise Operation Stockholm 1961 as a part of the Swedish Cold War civil defense. The analysis is based on two sociological theorical frameworks: technocratic rationality and fantasy documents. These theoretical frameworks are made into ideal types, that are used to analyze what the exercise actually tested and how the exercise was presented to the larger audience.

Methodically the study is a qualitative, theory-guided case study, that uses historical archive data as the base for the analysis. The archive data contains exercise planning documents, public info sheets and press coverage. The emphasis of the analysis is on the planning rationale, understanding the conduct of the exercise and the public presentation of its execution.

The findings show that the exercise was less of a test of the civil defenses’ capabilities and more of a reflection of the technocratic planning rationale, with emphasis on control, hierarchy and processes. This was further exposed by the low level of participants and extra resources plus the lack of actual uncertainty. This was further reinforced by the press coverage, which was mostly positive and redefined the success to underline the competence of the civil defense organization.

The thesis concludes that Operation Stockholm 1961 can rather been seen as a technocratic and symbolic action that produces more legitimacy and reassurance for the citizens than the actual readiness of the Swedish civil defense.

This study analyses how gender equality is constructed as a problem in the Swedish Armed Forces. Using Carol Bacchi’s policy-analytical approach “What’s the Problem Represented to Be” (WPR), it analyses the problem representation produced in central governance and gender mainstreaming documents, which assumptions are taken for granted, what remains not problematized and what effect this causes. The analysis shows that gender equality is predominantly framed as a numerical and instrumental issue, defined by the underrepresentation of women. The solutions are therefore primarily formulated around “the need to recruit more women” while norms of masculinity, power relations and organizational culture largely remain silent in practice. Drawing on theories of hegemonic masculinity and tokenism, the study demonstrates how this problem representation risks reinforcing men as the normative standard and positioning women as the bearers of the equality issue, thereby limiting the transformative potential of gender equality work.

This interpretive study explores the commanding officers’ perspective of trust within Swedish army division and brigades when time is limited, as it probably would be when individuals and unit are replaces during operations in war.

Initially the army doctrine is problematized using Bacchi’s (2014) “What´s the problem represented to be?”. Then nine semi-structured interviews are analysed using Braun & Clarke (2006; 2021) thematic analysis method, the findings referred to research in the field of trust, swift trust and trust in military context.

The study shows that trust is formed intuitively but also that there are several things the organization could do or reflect on to make it happen more swiftly, highlighting the importance of the military education system and culture among other things.          

In this way the study contributes with a different perspective and new empirics within war studies, also relevant to the scientific field of trust.   

In a deteriorating security environment, soldiers’ and officers’ inner drive is central to military effectiveness yet remains underexplored in everyday military practice. This study examines how inner drive is understood and experienced by personnel at the Stockholm Marine Regiment, and how it relates to problem representations in the unit’s code of conduct. Adopting a qualitative interpretive approach, the study combines Carol Bacchi’s What’s the Problem Represented to Be? framework with narrative analysis of semi-structured individual and focus group interviews with 32 soldiers and officers. Identity fusion theory guides the analysis. The findings show that inner drive is primarily identity-based rather than instrumental, linked to duty, belonging, and professional self-understanding. Consequently, availability and task completion are experienced as moral obligations rather than formal requirements. While this strengthens performance and cohesion, the normalization and internalization of high workload and tempo raise concerns regarding long-term sustainability in a Swedish peacetime military context.

Denna kvalitativa studie belyser att det finns behov av att på ett systematiskt sätt tillgodose sig forskning i Försvarsmaktens skolor. Med ett försämrat säkerhetsläge i världen ställs det högre krav på Försvarsmaktens skolor att bidra med organisatoriskt lärande som ska stå emot oförutsedda händelser i framtiden. Studien har genomförts med hjälp av semistrukturella intervjuer med nio respondenter som är anställda vid Försvarsmaktens skolor. Den tematiska analysen synliggjorde tre teman; ”avsaknad av systematik för omhändertagande av forskning och erfarenheter”, ”ny tid, nya förutsättningar” och ”teori och praktik för att främja lärande”. Ansatsen är induktiv och för att kunna föra ett teoretiskt resonemang har Single Loop Learning och Double Loop Learning och Lessons Learned använts som teorier. Resultatet visade att det finns en avsaknad av att systematiskt kunna tillgodose sig forskning och erfarenhetsbaserad kunskap på Försvarsmaktens skolor. Däremot fanns det en vilja att utveckla detta för att få en mer fungerande organisation.

Detta svar argumenterar för att förslagen om att återinföra personminor i Sverige vilar på antaganden snarare än praktisk erfarenhet av minkrigföring. Garbino och Anctil Avoine ifrågasätter påståendena att moderna minor nu är "säkra" eftersom de kan självförstöra eller självdeaktivera, och noterar att sådan teknik redan fanns när Ottawakonventionen förhandlades fram och fortfarande ansågs otillräcklig för att motivera undantag från ett brett förbud. De bestrider också idén att dessa helt enkelt är traditionella nedgrävda minor och betonar att sådana system ofta fjärrlevereras av fordon, artilleri eller flygplan. Författarna menar vidare att interoperabilitetsproblem är överdrivna, eftersom Nato redan tillgodoser nationella skillnader och juridiska frågor kan hanteras nationellt. Operativt hävdar de att snabb utplacering av minfält är logistiskt krävande, särskilt för mobila eller luftburna enheter, vilket gör andra defensiva alternativ mer praktiska. Artikeln drar slutsatsen att demokratisk säkerhetspolitik bör prioritera återhållsamhet och avvisa vapen som inte borde användas.

This thesis examines military decision-making under uncertainty in the context of hybrid threats and counterintelligence operations conducted by the Swedish Armed Forces. The study analyses how uncertainty, agility and legitimacy interact in decision-making processes to enable initiative. Empirical data were collected through field observations and focus group interviews and analysed through reflexive thematic analysis, guided by a theoretical framework based on Boyd’s OODA-loop. Findings indicate that military commanders seek to exercise agility under conditions of legal ambiguity, time pressure and potential risks to organisational reputation. Organisational agility and the prevailing culture are not perceived to promote or reward initiative. Initiative and individual agility can be enhanced when acceptance of uncertainty is seen as inherent to decision-making and when legal conditions are understood as enablers rather than obstacles. The study contributes an empirically grounded theoretical framework for decision-making under uncertainty and advances understanding of military decision-making in complex operational environments.

Studien undersöker, med hjälp av en kvalitativ forskningsansats och genom en kombination av diskursanalytiska perspektiv enligt Bacchi och Fairclough, hur logistik konstrueras som ett sammanbindande element i aktuella NATO-dokument på strategisk och operativ nivå. Analysen tar sin utgångspunkt i styrande policy och behandlar det konceptuella skiftet från logistik till sustainment.Den visar hur strategiska riktlinjer materialiseras genom NATO:s logistiska ramverk på den operativa nivån och hur inneboende problematiseringar omvandlas till koordinerande åtgärder. Därigenom bidrar studien till en fördjupad förståelse av NATO-logistik på operativ nivå, särskilt i relation till planering och genomförande av operationer. Avhandlingen stärker därutöver den analytiska förståelsen av NATO:s logistiska styrning och kan stödja nationell implementering.

This study examines whether Russian influence operations based on reflexive control affected Swedish decisions on the first military support package to Ukraine during the period from summer 2021 to February 2022. The research applies a theory-testing case study design using process tracing. Two competing explanatory models are assessed: external influence through Russian reflexive control and domestic constraints derived from legal and regulatory arms export frameworks. The empirical material consists of official documents, public statements and incident reporting. The findings show that Sweden was subjected to Russian reflexive control and that this influence shaped the security policy context of the decision. However, neither Russian influence nor legal restrictions on arms exports can, with sufficient certainty, explain the scope of Sweden’s first military support package to Ukraine. Rather, the decision appears to have emerged from the interaction of several factors rather than a single dominant cause.

Urban operations remain a recurring feature of contemporary armed conflict, while developing capability for combat in urban environments continues to present challenges. This study examines how Swedish Army officers perceive the extent to which training and exercises for combat in urban environments address operational demands. The study draws on qualitative interviews analysed through thematic analysis within an interpretive framework.

The findings indicate broad awareness among officers of the operational importance and complexity of urban environments. However, this awareness is not consistently reflected in training and exercise practice. Combat in urban environments is seldom integrated into larger exercises, progression beyond basic levels is limited, and the civilian dimension is rarely incorporated systematically. Leadership priorities and exercise structures shape what is implemented in practice. The study contributes an empirically grounded account of how organisational factors influence the development of capability for combat in urban environments within the Swedish Army.

Hybrid threats in the grey zone present a growing security concern for Sweden and Europe. Despite increased defence investments, empirical knowledge remains scarce on how well national strategies meet theoretical requirements for effective deterrence against hybrid threats in the grey zone.

This study analyses the National Security Strategy and the Total Defence Proposition 2025-2030 by operationalizing Monaghan's (2022) hybrid deterrence framework into ten indicators. A systematic content analysis assessed how well the documents fulfil requirements regarding capability, credibility, communication, denial and punishment deterrence.

The analysis reveals that Sweden's hybrid deterrence, as articulated in the documents, is theoretically aligned with Monaghan's framework but strongly imbalanced. The strategy contains robust denial deterrence through resilience and total defence, yet punishment mechanisms and explicit thresholds remain underdeveloped, creating a potential deterrence gap. The study indicates that small states may need to better integrate punishment mechanisms and communicate clearer consequences to strengthen hybrid deterrence.

This thesis tests Arash Heydarian Pashakhanlou’s Underdog’s Model (UM) of asymmetric airpower through a structured, focused comparison of the 1940 air campaigns in the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain. Using an evidence matrix and relative within-case assessments of the relatively disadvantaged belligerent in each campaign, it evaluates performance across six interlinked dimensions: creativity; self-sufficiency and external support; commitment; intelligence; dispersion and concentration; engagement of vulnerable military targets. In France, the Armée de l'Air underperforms its opponent on five dimensions (with commitment roughly equal), consistent with underdog failure to deny the opponent’s objectives. In Britain, the Royal Air Force outperforms its opponent on five dimensions (but underperforms on dispersion and concentration), consistent with successful denial. Overall, the study offers tentative support for UM’s holistic, probabilistic logic, while noting limits to inference from two cases and qualitative coding.

How has Nordic military cooperation transformed following the strategic shift represented by Sweden’s and Finland’s accession to NATO? Previous academic and professional military research has largely relied on open sources and descriptive historical analysis. This thesis addresses that gap by using elite interviews and inductive thematic analysis to examine how changing strategic conditions shape military cooperation. The findings show that Nordic air cooperation is rapidly shifting from coordination on non-operational activities to enabling operational capability for NATO in the Nordic region. Shared strategic interests, geographical proximity, historical ties, and similarities in strategic culture emerge as key enablers for deeper cooperation, despite differing national priorities. The study also highlights practical implications, particularly the need for early professional education in Nordic cooperation. The results contribute both empirical insight into early NATO-integration dynamics in the Nordic air domain and broader understanding of how regional military cooperation can evolve into an operational resource within an alliance framework.

This study examines how logistics officers in the Swedish Army manage fric-tion and uncertainty, which improvisation strategies enable continuous sup-ply, and what factors may limit sustainment in war. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews based on a purposive sampling of logistics officers for variation in function, experience and geographical service using an integrated perspective on individual, organizational and cultural factors. The focus is on the human and practical dimension, interpretations, decisions, and adaptation of routines, rather than technical systems or quantitative calculations. The study contributes to highlighting the strategies and practices that in real life maintain combat readiness and thus examines how individual experiences and organizational norms are translated into operational action.

The international security environment has undergone significant transformationfollowing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, resulting in accelerated military build-ups inEurope and a restructuring of global defence-industrial cooperation. In this context,South Korea and Sweden, as technologically advanced middle powers, face growingincentives to strengthen their defence industries and expand internationalcooperation. Despite increasing political engagement, however, systematic analysesof the structural conditions underpinning defence-industrial cooperation betweenthe two countries remain limited.The purpose of this study is to compare the defence-industrial structures of SouthKorea and Sweden and to analyze the strategic implications of bilateral cooperation.The study employs Michael Porter’s Diamond Model as the primary analyticalframework, complemented by SWOT and TOWS analyses to identify strengths,weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and to formulate strategic cooperationoptions.The findings indicate that South Korea and Sweden possess complementarystrengths: South Korea benefits from large-scale production capacity, costcompetitiveness, and strong government-led export support, while Sweden holds acompetitive advantage in high-end technological niches such as aerospace, sensors,submarines and systems integration. At the same time, constraints related to exportcontrols, industrial scale, and geopolitical considerations are identified. The studyconcludes that a gradual and institutionally anchored cooperation strategy canenhance industrial competitiveness and strategic autonomy for both countries,provided that political and regulatory risks are carefully managed.

Sweden’s NATO accession has introduced a dual requirement for C2 interoperability within the Armed Forces, combining robust national joint operations with effective multinational integration. This study examines how Swedish operational command is understood and described by actors in the transition from national responsibility under Article 3 to collective defence under Article 5. Drawing on doctrinal analysis and interviews with personnel at strategic, operational, and tactical levels, central tensions between ambition and practice are explored. The findings suggest that interoperability is primarily a cognitive and conceptual integration process rather than a purely technical adaptation. At the same time, operational tempo and freedom of action are described as constrained in relation to unclear roles, mandates, and limited internal coherence. The study suggests that leadership emerges as central for sensemaking and conceptual adaptation, while formal command authority is highlighted as important for maintaining vertical coherence and supporting robust C2 interoperability.

This study examines how sociotechnical imaginaries expressed in Swedish governing documents between 2017 and 2025 shape the development of cyber as a domain of warfare. Drawing on Jasanoff and Kim’s framework of sociotechnical imaginaries, the study analyses how imaginaries take shape, become embedded, encounter resistance and are extended in relation to major security policy shifts, particularly Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

The analysis shows that military capability development is a process in which capability is conceptually and institutionally shaped through the interaction of imaginaries, organisation and technology. 

Change following major security shifts is selective: strategic framings are revised comprehensively, while more fundamental understandings of cyber as a domain display greater stability. Institutionalisation through governing documents enables capability development but also constrains what can be re-imagined. 

The study also contributes an analytical model that shows how sociotechnical imaginaries shape the conditions under which military capability becomes thinkable, legitimate and actionable.

This qualitative study explores how Swedish Air Force fighter pilots experience their motivation to remain in service amid Sweden’s NATO accession, an intensified security environment, and organizational change. Ten semi-structured interviews with operational pilots (Blekinge and Luleå wings) conducted in November–December 2025 were analyzed using a theoretically informed, abductive thematic analysis grounded in Self-Determination Theory. Three themes explain their motivation: (1) professionalism as a source of meaning, shifting from the enjoyment of flying to the perceived importance of defending Sweden; (2) boundary management between work and everyday life, where workload, time, and family sustainability condition engagement; and (3) loyalty in an uncertain future, shaped by autonomy-supportive leadership, transparency, and career predictability. Overall, willingness to stay is strongest when the transition is meaningful, foreseeable, and fairly compensated, and weakest when rising demands combine with unclear future conditions and strained work–life sustainability.

This study investigates the role of work-life balance in a recent relocation decision made by the Swedish Armed Forces. Applying the “What is the problem represented to be?” (WPR) discourse analysis method to documents concerning budget submissions over a five-year period (2020–2024) and a relocation decision from 2017, this study identifies a common focus on the reduction of organizational vulnerability. The way the problem of organizational vulnerability is presented, however, neglects considerations of employees’ work-life balance and serves to make effects of organizational changes at the individual level invisible. Founded on a social constructivist perspective, the study therefore argues that this neglect of work-life balance in official discourse on organizational change may be counterproductive to the proposed aim of a reduction in organizational vulnerability.

Despite increased research on military veterans, little has examined how UK veterans end up in prison. This study addresses this gap through semi-structured interviews with 35 veteran prisoners, investigating their life courses from childhood, military service, civilian life, and into prison. Childhood difficulties—including pre-service contact with the criminal justice system and experiences of childhood neglect and abuse—shaped the participants’ military service experiences and re-entry to civilian society. In-service loss and trauma often led to mental health problems and substance misuse. Most participants regretted leaving the military and struggled to reintegrate into civilian society, citing loss of structure, purpose, and sense of belonging. Unemployment, homelessness, substance misuse, and mental health problems—exacerbated by loneliness and isolation—influenced later criminal offending and eventual imprisonment.

Green energy production has been created partly due to climate change through mitigation technologies (e.g. wind turbines) which have been introduced on and around Sámi lands, creating a paradox between mitigation and forced adaptation patterns for Sámi People and raising questions about adaptation and mitigation for whom? In global governance, legitimacy perceptions are important to understand how appropriately political institutions are governing in the eyes of relevant audiences, which can increase or decrease those audiences’ will to collaborate in improving governance. The chapter empirically studies whether Sámi People perceive the decisions of Nordic governments as legitimate in relation to the mobility paradox – the tension between Sámi mobility rights for reindeer herding and green energy production. Legitimacy perceptions hold the potential to define the opportunities of cooperation between Sámi People and Nordic governments to provide fair pathways to adapt to a changing climate, increasing the effectiveness and fairness of regional and national approaches to mobility and climate change. The chapter builds upon studies on normative-sociological legitimacy, Arctic environmental justice and green transition to investigate the mobility paradox and Sámi legitimacy perceptions, the justice-based sources of these perceptions and the implications for the study of effective and fairer energy governance and future mobility pathways.

Previous research has examined the United States’ strategy for supporting Ukraine during the ongoing war with Russia while seeking to avoid escalation with Moscow. It is often suggested that the U.S. has used a gradual learning-by-doing approach driven by concerns about Russian escalation. This quantitative study explains variation in the composition of U.S. military materiel support to Ukraine between 2022 and 2024 through the concept of strategic signalling, using escalation- and needs-based logics.

Based on monthly observations the analysis suggest that U.S. support did not follow a reactive pattern in response to Russian nuclear threats or changes in battlefield intensity. Instead, variation is primarily associated with time, indicating a gradual calibration of assistance. This points to a measured support strategy and opens avenues for further research into the underlying mechanisms shaping the temporal dynamics of military material assistance.