In NATO’s Newest Member, ‘Total Defense’ Includes Teens and Retirees
Sweden’s approach to national security offers a model for other European countries fearing Russian aggression
Daniel MichaelsUpdated Feb. 26, 2024 at 3:13 pm ET
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on a Swedish fast-assault craft.
When Sweden joins NATO as soon as this week, the alliance will gain a solidly anti-Russian member with a robust military that provides critical defense of Europe’s northern flank.
“Everyone between the ages of 16 and 70 living in Sweden is part of Sweden’s total defense,” states the government emergency information website.
By conveying to ordinary people the need for security, Sweden also wins broad support for its military industry, which ranks among the world’s top in technology and exports.
“This is an area where I think Sweden punches above its weight,” said Defense Minister Pal Jonson.
1:43
0:00 / 3:00
Hungary has approved Sweden’s bid to join NATO, clearing the last hurdle for the alliance to complete a historic expansion launched in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. WSJ’s Sune Engel Rasmussen explains what Sweden will bring to the Western bloc. Photo Illustration: Marina Costa
The decision in May 2022 by Sweden and neighbor Finland to abandon decades of nonalignment and join the alliance was prompted by chilling proposals from Russia in December 2021—two months before it attacked Kyiv—that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization roll back its post-Cold War expansion and pledge to accept no more members.
Both countries had long invested heavily in defense and devoted resources to preparing for a potential Russian attack, offering them security through the Cold War and after. But Finland, which fought wars against the Soviet Union and shares an 800-mile border with Russia, had long maintained for itself the option of joining NATO.
Russia’s threat to deny it that choice, followed by its invasion of Ukraine, prompted Helsinki’s quick shift to apply for membership. Sweden followed suit. Finland joined NATO last April.
“It’s a step-change for NATO deterrence and defense,” said Oana Lungescu, a distinguished fellow at British think tank the Royal United Services Institute and a former NATO spokeswoman, of the Nordic duo joining. “It’s a strategic surprise and totally against what Russia had in mind.”
Inside NATO, the new Nordic members bring a whole new mindset, say European officials. Sweden modeled much of its approach on Finland’s readiness plans, and after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, Stockholm dusted off its playbook, dubbed “Total Defense.”
A 20-page government brochure, titled “If Crisis Or War Comes,” admonishes citizens that, “If Sweden is attacked, resistance is required.”
Sweden’s all-of-society approach is notable because, like most of Europe, it shares no land border with Russia and long sought to engage with Moscow through business deals and diplomacy. Military leaders and top officials in Britain, Denmark and NATO’s headquarters have recently urged other members to act more like Finland and Sweden due to growing threats from Russia, China and other adversaries.
Swedish CV90 armored combat vehicles are prized on the battlefield in Ukraine. Photo: genya savilov/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
“This whole-of-society approach is something we’re all talking about,” said Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren, whose mother is Swedish. “In the Netherlands, people think security is something the military can take care of,” and now the government is trying to spark a wider debate, she said.
Finland, which Swedes consider the leader in total defense, “is very creative and does a good job educating the public about disinformation” and other threats, such as by reaching older people through public libraries, said Vera Jourova, the European Union’s commissioner for values and transparency. She heads to Helsinki this week to meet Finland’s defense minister and visit the European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, an autonomous international organization linked to NATO and the EU.
“It comes down to creating awareness in your society that the security environment has deteriorated dramatically in recent years,” said Jonson, Sweden’s defense minister. The country is beefing up civil defenses and urges private citizens to keep two weeks of supplies at home, including food, water and radios that don’t need batteries.
Sweden produces its own advanced jet fighter, the Saab Gripen. Photo: piroschka van de wouw/Reuters
Sweden’s Civil Contingencies Agency, which promotes preparation for natural disasters, terrorist or cyberattacks, and war, works closely with its military, Jonson said.
“The Swedish armed forces are very dependent on civil society” in areas ranging from transportation to healthcare, he said.
Swedish popular support for the armed forces reached 81% last year, according to a survey conducted for the Defense Materiel Administration. That marked the highest level since the survey began in 2012, when support stood at 56%.
Support for the military also translates to support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Sweden recently announced its 15th package of military support to Ukraine, valued at more than $690 million, its largest yet. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X that the equipment is “meeting some of our front-line warriors’ most pressing needs.”
Swedish Archer mobile artillery systems and CV90 armored combat vehicles are prized on the battlefield in Ukraine, and new guided rocket bombs produced in partnership with
Boeing
recently started to hit Russian targets there.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, left, and his Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orban, after a joint press conference in Budapest last week. Photo: attila kisbenedek/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Sweden is set to become NATO’s 32nd member, after Hungary’s parliament approved its membership and ended a protracted process that had been delayed by objections from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Hungary’s approval must still be signed into law and then deposited in Washington, where the State Department administers NATO’s founding treaty. Once that is done, Sweden will officially be a member and its flag will be raised at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels, where a flagpole was installed late last year.
Since both Sweden and Finland have for years joined with NATO in exercises and other readiness measures, their membership will trigger only limited near-term change inside the alliance. Finland recently trained allied troops in one of their specialties, winter-survival skills, NATO said.
Over time, they will have a broader impact, say diplomats. Both spend more on defense than NATO’s targeted 2% of gross domestic product, expanding the alliance faction that invests in preparedness—joining Poland, the Baltic states, Britain and Germany, which is now working to reverse years of low military outlays.
NATO with Finland and Sweden will also now control nearly the entire Baltic Sea, except for a small corner fronting Russian territory near St. Petersburg. The Baltic’s NATO-ization means that any Russian sea vessel launching into the Atlantic must pass alliance shores, either through the Baltic gauntlet or to the north, past founding NATO member Norway.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Stockholm last year. Photo: jonathan nackstrand/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Broad support for the military, combined with Sweden’s booming civilian tech sector, has helped keep its arms industry at the cutting edge. The country of roughly 10.6 million people—or fewer than North Carolina—designed and produces its own advanced jet fighter, the Saab Gripen. Saab also makes sophisticated submarines and, with Boeing, is now producing the Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb for use in Ukraine and the T-7 Red Hawk jet trainer for the U.S. Air Force.
The strength of Sweden’s defense industry stems from its years as a nonaligned yet heavily armed country, similar to Switzerland. Leaders in Stockholm wanted not only a ready military, but self-sufficiency in weaponry. To fund weapons development, Sweden became one of the world’s top arms exporters.
Today, Sweden works to pull civilian technologies from its tech sector, which spawned successes including Spotify, financial platform Klarna and battery developer Northvolt. Innovations roll into military sensors, electronic-warfare systems and other digital equipment that is increasingly vital on the battlefield.
The government last year launched a Defense Innovation Initiative, which Jonson said aims to more aggressively integrate civil and military technologies, deepening ties between civilians and the armed forces.
Sweden has “a lot to offer when it comes to innovation, the defense industry and top-tiers of technology,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told an alliance military-industry gathering near Stockholm in October.
