Der ewige Russische - The Swedish military and its schizophrenic struggle for an identity

Abstract

This study is about how the Swedish military handles their identity in regards to a post-Cold War world both in the formal and informal sense. In the study we ask how the two identities of the Swedish military are constructed are and if they are compatible. We also discuss what consequences may come from the two identities. As analytical tool we used Critical Discourse Analysis combined with a framework by Lene Hansen combined with Cold War and post-Cold War security logics. We find that there is two incompatible identities struggling in the eye of the public and that there can be problematic consequences from this struggle between identities.