The coexistence of hard and soft security threats : Analyzing Swedish national debates

Using enemy images and securitization as theoretical points of departure the paper discusses and analyzes the landscape of Swedish security threats as made up of traditional, militarily defined threat perceptions and the looming specter of an invasive migrant Other. The paper uses a two-fold analytical focus. Firstly, the last decade or so has seen a notable return of hard security thinking to the Swedish political debate, particularly in relation to a resurgent Russia. To illustrate this, the paper analyzes political discussions surrounding the establishment of the Gotland Regiment, situated on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. The regiment became operational by January 1, 2018, following a political near-consensus that the Swedish preparedness for military defense against Russia needed to be strengthened, not least in the wake of the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The old regiment on Gotland was dismantled in 2004, and the decision about its reestablishment had significant symbolic value. Secondly, the old-school hard security threat perceptions coexist with less traditional threat perceptions, notably those connected to migration, particularly so in the wake of the so-called migration crisis of 2015 when Sweden in short time received an all-time high number of asylum-seekers and refugees. The Sweden Democrats, nowadays the third largest political party in the Swedish Parliament, has managed to capitalize on widespread perceptions that migrants pose threats to the physical security, economic well-being and moral and cultural values of the Swedish majority population, and has, through its success at the polls reshaped the Swedish political landscape.