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The Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallström expressed in 2014 that Russia is erratic and making swedes fear Russia while claiming this to be a new phenome. The statement is a big difference if compared with the words of foreign minister Leila Freivalds during 2004 whom said that Russia was the most important cornerstone in the Swedish security policy work. The change is interesting.

Russia has gone from being perceived as friend to being perceived as an enemy. This study contains an analysis the Swedish discourse on Russia in the security- and defence politics between the years of 2004-2015. The point of this study is to unveil veiled and hidden structures in the discourse in order to better understand the Swedish image of Russia and to reveal ´the other`.

The study examines the extreme change in the Swedish perception of Russia from a critical discourse point of view. The critical discourse approach is used to understand how the image of Russia is perceived in the Swedish security- and defence politics. In attempting to understand whyRussia is perceived in a certain way a theoretical connection to Copenhagen´s school of securitazion is made. The study proceeds to take a starting point in Balzacq’s three assumptions to understand the connection to referent object. The material examined is the Swedish Foreign Policy Statements and defence propositions. The result of the study shows that Russia is framed as a threat, even while being mentioned as a friend. Russia is always perceived as ´the other´ and thus a constructed threat to Sweden. 

The Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallström expressed in 2014 that Russia is erratic and making swedes fear Russia while claiming this to be a new phenome. The statement is a big difference if compared with the words of foreign minister Leila Freivalds during 2004 whom said that Russia was the most important cornerstone in the Swedish security policy work. The change is interesting.

Russia has gone from being perceived as friend to being perceived as an enemy. This study contains an analysis the Swedish discourse on Russia in the security- and defence politics between the years of 2004-2015. The point of this study is to unveil veiled and hidden structures in the discourse in order to better understand the Swedish image of Russia and to reveal ´the other`.

The study examines the extreme change in the Swedish perception of Russia from a critical discourse point of view. The critical discourse approach is used to understand how the image of Russia is perceived in the Swedish security- and defence politics. In attempting to understand whyRussia is perceived in a certain way a theoretical connection to Copenhagen´s school of securitazion is made. The study proceeds to take a starting point in Balzacq’s three assumptions to understand the connection to referent object. The material examined is the Swedish Foreign Policy Statements and defence propositions. The result of the study shows that Russia is framed as a threat, even while being mentioned as a friend. Russia is always perceived as ´the other´ and thus a constructed threat to Sweden. 

The Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallström expressed in 2014 that Russia is erratic and making swedes fear Russia while claiming this to be a new phenome. The statement is a big difference if compared with the words of foreign minister Leila Freivalds during 2004 whom said that Russia was the most important cornerstone in the Swedish security policy work. The change is interesting.

Russia has gone from being perceived as friend to being perceived as an enemy. This study contains an analysis the Swedish discourse on Russia in the security- and defence politics between the years of 2004-2015. The point of this study is to unveil veiled and hidden structures in the discourse in order to better understand the Swedish image of Russia and to reveal ´the other`.

The study examines the extreme change in the Swedish perception of Russia from a critical discourse point of view. The critical discourse approach is used to understand how the image of Russia is perceived in the Swedish security- and defence politics. In attempting to understand why Russia is perceived in a certain way a theoretical connection to Copenhagen´s school of securitazion is made. The study proceeds to take a starting point in Balzacq’s three assumptions to understand the connection to referent object. The material examined is the Swedish Foreign Policy Statements and defence propositions. The result of the study shows that Russia is framed as a threat, even while being mentioned as a friend. Russia is always perceived as ´the other´ and thus a constructed threat to Sweden.