Sverige och det psykologiska hotet

En studie av grundandet av Myndigheten för psykologiskt försvar

Författare

Simon Pettersson

Summary, in English

As new security threats arise within the borders Europe, with new methods of modern warfare that challenge previous notions of what constitutes regular warfare, one must adapt. The contemporary landscape of information technology has made it easier for antagonistic actors, such as Russia to employ information as a subversive tool to achieve political goals. Sweden has recently established an agency that intends to counter such information-based threats, also
called psychological warfare methods. This paper is a qualitative interprative case study on the establishment of that agency, Swedens Psychological Defence Agency. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain an in-depth look at the argumentative foundation that preceded the establishment of the Psychological Defence Agency. The sources of this papers empirical data consist of official governmental reports and enquiries, on which an analytical framework based on Robert Entmans Theory of Framing is applied. The analytical framework
is divided into four operational question formulations, with the purpose of highlighting certain frames in the chosen empirical data. The results show that information influence and grey zone problematics along with their root causes underlie the establishment of the Psychological Defence Agency. Lastly, the study concludes that even though grey zone problematics appear to be a significant problem, no apparant solution to this present itself.

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