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Don’t say peace: militarisation and the shrinking space for critical voices in the Swedish NATO debate
Swedish Defence University, Department of War Studies, Functions and Perspective Division.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5996-5470
Swedish Defence University, Department of War Studies, Functions and Perspective Division.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2980-1090
2024 (English)In: Critical Studies on Security, ISSN 2162-4887, E-ISSN 2162-4909, Vol. 12, no 3, p. 235-239Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Sweden, long known as a voice for peace on the international arena, has undergone a rapid and far-reaching domestic (re-)militarisation the last decade. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, this process intensified with a surge in military spending and a radical shift from a longstanding position of non-alignment towards NATO membership. As ‘war’ moves to the center of Swedish public debate, military and security experts occupy most of the space, leaving little room for alternative and critical perspectives. Drawing from feminist scholars, we offer some reflections on Sweden’s (re-)militarisation and ask who gets to speak, who is silenced, and why? Focusing on the domestic public debate post February 2022, we argue that when war moves to the center of the debate, peace is considered an ‘issue for later’. As war is understood in narrow military terms, war expertise is limited to matters of warfare instead of being seen as a broader societal issue. Critical voices and peace advocates are considered naive, unrealistic, and even dangerous. Our reflections invite a discussion on how militarisation and the politics of war expertise affect democratic debate with potentially far-reaching consequences for domestic and international politics.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2024. Vol. 12, no 3, p. 235-239
Keywords [en]
Sweden, Nato, Militarization, Feminist Security Studies, War Expertise
National Category
Political Science
Research subject
War Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-13255DOI: 10.1080/21624887.2024.2358643OAI: oai:DiVA.org:fhs-13255DiVA, id: diva2:1916276
Available from: 2024-11-27 Created: 2024-11-27 Last updated: 2025-09-29Bibliographically approved

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Berg, ElinFredriksson, Emma

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CiteExportLink to record
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  • apa
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  • de-DE
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  • nn-NB
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Output format
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