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

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

doi:10.31374/sjms.69

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

Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies

Volume 4 (2021): Issue 1

By: Claes Wallenius, Anna Karin Berglund, Carina Brandow and Susanne Hede

Open Access

|Feb 2021

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.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31374/sjms.69 | Journal eISSN: 2596-3856

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Language: English

Page range: 78 - 93

Submitted on: Feb 26, 2020

Accepted on: Jan 5, 2021

Published on: Feb 18, 2021

Published by: Scandinavian Military Studies

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

Keywords:

anchoring,

trust,

downsizing,

Swedish Armed Forces,

concordance

© 2021 Claes Wallenius, Anna Karin Berglund, Carina Brandow, Susanne Hede, published by Scandinavian Military Studies
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 4 (2021): Issue 1