Russia - A secure neighbor or a reason for "Resilience"? : A discourse analysis of the Swedish Defense Commissions representation of Russia 2003-2017

When Sweden 2017 changed the risk valuation of an armed attack against Sweden from not likely to that it can’t be ruled out, it got the swedish peoples and medias attention. Russia has during the last centuries had an extensive impact in Swedish security and defense politics. This study examine if there has been any change in the Swedish representation of Russia and as a consequence may have affected the risk assessment. By analyze the discourse in four reports by the Swedish Defence Commission with the method of framing this study will use the theory of securitization developed by Barry Buzan, Ole Wæver and Jaap de Wilde as it advocates a wide concept of security. Securitization is the process in which an actor turns a subject into a matter of security. The study finds evidence that the representation of Russia in the Swedish discourse has changed for the worse and it is possible that it has affected the changed risk assessment