The politicians are unable to arm Sweden

Hökmark and Oksanen: The defense committee has outlived itself

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DEBATE. It is enough to state that the defense preparations in Sweden have failed for a very long time. The eagerness to collect everyone has created compromises about reality instead of clarity. The mix-up between government and parliament has blurred responsibility and undermined decision-making power.

The result has been disarmament while the threats grew, and now that the threats are obvious, it is too little too late, time after time.

During Friday, another defense preparation was presented with lined up defense politicians who delivered roughly the same fine words and the same shortcomings as usual.

The level of 2.6 (NATO) percent of GDP by 2030 (or approximately 2.2 percent in Swedish terms) only means that the defense decision from 2020 will now be financed and implemented.

But it does not mean the rapid development of total defense needed to meet the challenges that have become acutely apparent since 2022. It constitutes a late adaptation to yesterday’s reality.

The Defense Committee has outlived itself. Unclear responsibilities lead to a lack of decision-making power and politicized threat images.

With the lowest ambition as a level setter, there are always forces that want to spend money on “more fun things”. The systemic failure in Swedish defense policy has resulted in a long series of bad and underfunded defense decisions characterized by naivety towards the outside world.

Hatching in Swedish defense policy has not only become dangerous, it has also become extremely expensive for taxpayers.

The process of defense preparations – instead of independent public investigations and normal handling in government and then the Riksdag – was developed in practice to make everyone hostage in a process of disarmament.

Through a constitutionally dubious form of parliamentary representation within the enclosure of the government office for “consultations”, a process is formed in which everyone is so responsible that no one has any real responsibility.

Boundaries are blurred by mixing up the role of the defense committee, the legislative responsibility of the Riksdag, with the government’s executive responsibility through the Ministry of Defence. Above this also rests the spirit of the Ministry of Finance. It is with the method that Sweden has since tried to equip.

Now history repeats itself with a defense preparation that does not take the impression of the outside world, that Poland passes 4 percent of GDP and Estonia and Lithuania add 3 percent, already this year.

The warnings are many. “A major war in Europe is no longer a fantasy” and EU Foreign Affairs Director Borell. “It’s a question of when they (Russia) start the next war”, Estonian President Kaja Kallas are just two examples.

There is today a broad realization that an armed attack against Sweden or our neighboring countries could turn into a tragic reality. It should lead to a rapid recovery of lost years, not a politics where ambition is guided by the lowest common denominator of the red-greens, the constant constraints of the finance ministry and an order of bureaucratic planning that delays even what must not be delayed and where the eye on the task disappears in details and processes.

The fact that the security policy situation has become acute since 2020 is not dealt with.

NATO membership certainly provides status and improves a lousy situation, but the preparation does not rise to handle the capability requirements that NATO membership requires. Pushing money along the way is not a strategy but an expensive hatter.

The government now needs to realize that seriousness obliges and that it is the government that rules the kingdom, not a preparation process where no one is really responsible but that the most meek put the brakes on.

Frivärld’s recommendation last year was 100 billion in an investment fund for total defense and at least 3 percent of GDP. The needs are no less today. On the contrary.

The process of the defense preparation has played its part. Now the total defense must get the accountability reality demands.

Gunnar Hökmark, chairman of the think tank Frivärld, former MEP and member of the defense committee
Patrik Oksanen, resident senior fellow Frivärld

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