Public education drive urges Swedes: 'Prep for war'

Stockholm

IN a country that hasn't been at war for more than 200 years, preparing for the worst means going back to the basics.

A new leaflet due to be distributed to all 4.8 million Swedish households by the government in Stockholm, seeking to raise the nation's war and crisis-readiness, says: "Good hand hygiene is important for avoiding infection."

The authors of the leaflet, which features fighter jets and tanks in the picturesque and historically peaceful Swedish landscape, urge readers to take the advice seriously.

"If Sweden is attacked by another country, we will never give up," they assert.

Some years ago, the campaign may have been laughed off as a taxpayer-financed 20-page guide for preppers - gun-toting, bunker building survivalists always preparing for the end-of-days.

These days, however, there isn't much ridicule.

Experts estimate that it would take a week to fully mobilise the Swedish military; another scenario predicts that Russia could invade Europe in only two days.

Amid concerns over Russian military exercises, the Swedish government brought back the draft and is looking into expanding its existing network of shelters, even though it already has 65,000 such structures which would provide space for up to two thirds of its population of 10 million.

Russia has been accused of several risky military manoeuvres near or in Swedish airspace in recent years, raising concerns over an accidental or deliberate escalation of tensions.

Sweden has 20,000 active military members, and Russia, over a million, so the Swedes are unlikely to win any confrontation with Moscow. Stockholm also isn't a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), the military alliance that obliges members to help defend member states in case of an attack.

Instead, Sweden is circling back to its Cold War-era strategy of total defence, which relies on all citizens resisting an invasion and refusing to cooperate with any foreign powers.

To remind the Swedes of their responsibility, the Swedish government is also launching a series of ads in media outlets this week, ahead of the large-scale distribution of the pamphlets from next week. It is the first such campaign in over half a century.

During World War II, Sweden produced similar pamphlets and continued issuing updates for several more decades.

But eventually even the production of a more downsized version targeting just politicians and local authorities was stopped, as political scientists proclaimed the "end of history" and the victory of democracy in the early 1990s.

Sweden's new combat-readiness campaign issues a strikingly frank acknowledgment that times have changed since. "For many years, the preparations made in Sweden for the threat of war and war have been very limited. Instead, public authorities and municipalities have focused on building up the level of preparedness for peace-time emergencies such as flooding and IT attacks," the authors recall.

"However, as the world around us has changed, the government has decided to strengthen Sweden's total defence."

To prepare its citizens for this new world, the guide, under the title "If crisis or war comes" was designed to be accessible to citizens and residents with varying language skills, both in Swedish and English. It comes with a number of illustrations showing Swedes fending off foreign powers or responding to catastrophes, and offers bullet points listing essential foods and advice on how to deal with a broken toilet.

Sweden is one of the richest nations in the world, which may be why the authors go to great lengths to describe the impact of war or crisis, when everyday life could become "problematic".

These are the ways, listed in bullet points:

Even though the leaflet doesn't mention a specific adversary, it warns that peace, freedom and democracy are values that the people must protect and reinforce on a daily basis, which could be a reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Besides Russia, Sweden has also been among Europe's most outspoken critics of US president Donald Trump administration's threats against North Korea or Iran, arguing that the White House is risking an unnecessary escalation. The country has shown a similar lack of understanding of Mr Trump's early reluctance to directly confront Russia over its efforts to interfere with Western elections.

Stockholm has launched a closer cyber warfare cooperation with Nato member state Denmark. "Even today, attacks are taking place against our IT systems and attempts are being made to influence us using false information," the leaflet says, referring to predominantly Russian disinformation campaigns ahead of this fall's Swedish elections.

And in case hackers disrupt the country's energy network? Sweden's war guide has you covered, too.

"Gather together in one room, hang blankets over the windows, cover the floor with rugs and build a den under a table to keep warm." WP