The discourse on policy shifts and NATO-membership

The decision to apply for Swedish membership in NATO in May 2022 demonstrates a major shift in security policy, as it means leaving the tradition of non-alignment. Three factors make this event interesting to explore further. 1) The decision was conducted under rapid circumstances and, 2) two of the larger political parties, the Social democratic party and the Sweden democrats, changed their traditional viewpoint on keeping non-alignment and instead argue for NATO-membership. 3) The decision was isolated from debates and referendum, which means a lack of transparency to the citizens. The research problem is focused on how this rapid decision officially was legitimized, and the aim of the research is thus analysing how the discourse on NATO-membership was constructed and prompted by the political actors who changed their policy. Leaning on theories on how attitudes, worldviews and security are constructed, this report analyses both the political actors’ communication process as well as how they displayed their attitudes and interpretations of the security context. Methodologically, Political discourse analysis (PDA) was applied on speeches and statements in order to deconstruct arguments, and as a complement, statistics were analysed to view public opinion. The findings display that the political actors mostly used descriptive arguments to rationalise the decision to apply for membership in NATO. In addition, the political parties used arguments associated with “fear” and “danger”. Emotional arguments that connoted “national love” were integrated in the Social democratic party´s speech to the citizens. In contrast, the Sweden democrats offered few statements and short speeches. Similarities between the political actors were that the Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 is mirrored in the political actors’ interpretation of the security situation and the claim that Sweden needs the defence guarantees that follows with a membership in NATO. In conclusion, the findings suggest that the Swedish resistance to NATO-membership has turned to positive attitudes in a similar way in both politics and the “everyday life” of the citizens.