Vem skyddar sanningen? En fallstudie om psykologisk krigföring och dess försvar i Sverige

Sammanfattning: Psychological warfare has become an increasingly pressing problem the last few years. The aim of this thesis is to study the development of psychological warfare and its defence in Sweden, focusing on disinformation. Furthermore, this research intends to develop a theoretical framework combining theories of critical security, the communication revolution and the network state. A qualitative text analysis is used to examine public documents to study the political discussion regarding psychological warfare and defence in Sweden from 2014 to today. The results show that psychological warfare is a threat to Sweden’s democratic society and human rights. The spread and use of disinformation has drastically increased since the evolution of internet and social media and the results show that high-technological countries are more sensitive to disinformation. To combat psychological warfare politicians in Sweden suggest more networking, both within the country, between institutions and different levels of society, as well as internationally. Psychological warfare, like disinformation, is not territorially bounded and therefore it cannot be defeated by sovereign states alone. Finally, it is important to improve the population’s source criticism and to provide them with reliable information to develop a strong psychological defence in a society constantly subjected to disinformation.