Anchoring Sweden’s Downsized Military – People’s Attitude to, Knowledge About, and Trust in Our Military Defense

Claes Wallenius,Carina Brandow,Susanne Hede,Anna Karin Berglund

doi:10.31374/sjms.69

Claes Wallenius, Carina Brandow + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.31374/sjms.69

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Abstract

The hypothesis was that post-Cold War downsizing of the military defense is associated with low levels of public anchoring, and that better anchoring is associated with a perception of a better performance by the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) and with a SAF connection and military experience. An additional research question concerned the level of concordance between the military and political elites and the population on these issues. A questionnaire was sent to 3,000 randomly selected residents. The results showed that post-Cold War downsizing was only partly associated with low levels of anchoring. Better anchoring was associated with a perception of a better performance by the SAF and with SAF connection and experience. There was significant concordance between the elites and the public. The study shows that anchoring is best supported by increased communication of the results and benefits of the military defense to all subgroups of the population.

Highlights

Since the end of the Cold War, many countries have dramatically downsized their armed forces
People generally feel the need for a military defense, but their attitudes to military
Hypothesis 1 – that post-Cold War downsizing is associated with low levels of anchoring – is only partly true

Summary

Introduction

Since the end of the Cold War, many countries have dramatically downsized their armed forces. This means that the distance between the military and large groups of the population has increased. Interest, and trust in the military may be negatively affected when a much smaller proportion of the cohort does military service and when people see less military activity. An important question is how to maintain healthy civil-military relations with a downsized force. The relationship between the military and civil society has attracted scholarly attention.

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