Swedish Defense on the Fence : Roles to play for the Armed Forces 2015-2020

Sammanfattning: The reason for conducting this case study is to analyze the roles of the Armed Forces of Sweden, as described by the Swedish policymakers. The research question is firstly what those roles are, and as a secondary objective, if those roles are conflicting. By analyzing the two major policy documents produced on Swedish security and defense policy during the period 2015-2020 these questions have been answered. The concept of roles has been central to the thesis and how conflicting roles are a source of organizational problems. The analysis of the material has been done by using discourse analysis in order to identify roles and the underlying discourse where they are constructed. Earlier research shows the importance of security and defense policy in directing the Armed Forces on what and how they should function. The roles were inductively found to be those of National Defender, Neighborhood Helper, Domestic Resource, and Expeditionary Crisis Manager. The results from this thesis show that the Policymakers view the two former roles concerned with national defense and providing military assistance in Sweden’s close vicinity as primary roles for the Armed Forces. The roles could be conflicting because of the non-alignment status of Sweden during the periods. The level of cooperation with other states and/or organizations makes Sweden’s ability to receive and give help uncertain. This is important in understanding Swedish defense and security policy in the context of its application to become a NATO member state in 2022.