Svensk Operationskonst : Ett tydligt manus för kreativ improvisation

Sammanfattning: In 2020, the Swedish Armed Forces will issue the publication that will operationalize the Military Strategic Doctrine of 2016. This new doctrine, named Doctrine for Joint Operations, is planned to cover all the Armed Forces' operational activities at peace time, crisis and war in the execution of Joint Operations. This study clarifies the underlying reasoning and motives behind the introduction of the four concepts: maneuver thinking, mission tactics, flexibility and integration thinking as building blocks in the collective name Swedish operational art in Doctrine for Joint Operations 2020. The study is based on a number of interviews with the authors of the doctrine development group. The study shows that the basic foundation of Swedish operational art is based on the idea of ​​the flexible, creative and enterprising officer and an organization that encourages and gives room for innovative actions. The building blocks of the Swedish operational art are clearly inspired by the experiences of other countries armed forces. Relevant elements that fit the conditions of the Swedish Armed Forces have been selected to be included in the doctrine. The study shows that the doctrine developers attach great importance to the concepts of initiative and flexibility. These permeate all other building blocks and acts as facilitators. The practical application of the Swedish operational art can possibly be a challenge for many of the employees whose daily tasks often involves cases of administrative nature, where possibilities for own creative solutions are limited. Here, a challenging dynamic arises as we see that the Doctrine for Joint Operations is more clearly directed at the Armed Forces as a war fighting organization and not the more mundane peace administrative activities. It is probably not enough with well-worded messages and guidelines in a book to introduce a new way of thinking in the organization. A structured implementation will require a longer period of time in order for the theoretical approaches to be transformed into practical actions. An absolute application of Swedish operational art is likely to challenge and test the Armed Forces' innovation propensity and acceptance for new ways of thinking.