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Does International Humanitarian Law Distinguish between Male and Female Combatants in its Provision on Prisoners of War?
No full textThe Pseudo-Kindness of Wartime Lawbreakers
No full textIt is sometimes said that cruel yet short wars are better for humanity than restrained yet lengthy ones. The idea finds sympathy among Francis Lieber and his Prussian contemporaries, as well as some modern writers who back selective non-compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL) on act-utilitarian grounds. This article refutes three underlying claims and reaffirms that IHL progressively narrows room for crude interest-balancing by its duty-bearers. First, it is claimed that toughening wars quickens them, whereas moderating wars prolongs them. This empirical claim overlooks how actions of the party resorting to brutality – “brutaliser” for short – interact with the intention of its adversary. Although the brutaliser clearly controls the amount of violence it chooses to inflict on its opponent, it does not control the opponent’s will to resist and, consequently, the length of the war it fights. History abounds with instances where adding cruelty stiffens the enemy’s resolve rather than accelerates surrender. Second, it is claimed that ruthless but swift wars lessen net inhumanity. On this act-utilitarian view, it is normatively superior to hasten wars through barbarity than to lengthen them through moderation. It is therefore the brutaliser’s responsibility to toughen fighting and the brutalised party’s responsibility to refrain from resisting the brutaliser. Problematically, the brutaliser usurps authority by imposing its own utilitarian considerations upon the brutalised party. Moreover, the brutaliser blames its disobliging adversary for the extra bloodshed to which it resorts in the name of maximum utility. Third, it is claimed that IHL does or should permit nonconformity when nonconformity stands reasonable chances of increasing net humanity. This position is inconsistent with IHL’s functions. IHL does aim to reduce net wartime harm. It would be a mistake to assume, however, that utilitarian ends necessarily justify, let alone require, utilitarian means. When IHL enacts unqualified rules, it predetermines their conformity or nonconformity through processes that are distinctly not act-utilitarian. Nowhere in these processes do lesser-evil justifications naturally belong
Human Trafficking as a Crime Against Humanity: Analysing the Inclusion under Article 7(1)(k) of the Rome Statute and the Need for a Separate Classification
No full textPartnerskapet som förblivit partnerskap : en teoriprövande tvåfallstudie om Natomedlemmarnas roll i Ukrainas uteblivna Natomedlemskap
No full textThis thesis tests Charles A. Kupchan’s hypotheses about discord and cooperation to explain why Ukraine has not received a membership invitation from NATO, despite the promise made in 2008. The hypotheses are examined on the cases of the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the Russian mobilization in 2021, focusing on the NATO-members United States, United Kingdom, Germany and France. The result shows that Kupchan’s hypotheses partly explain the discord and that the domestic politics hypothesis, through German energy dependence, French economic incentives and pursuit of strategic autonomy, combined with the alliance security dilemma, through restrained U.S. leadership carried the greatest explanatory weight. External threat hypothesis played some role, while collective action finds no empirical support. The study thus suggests that national, state-specific factors, rather than Russian aggression alone, help explain how NATO’s policy toward Ukrainian membership has been shaped.
Logistics Adaptation to NATO : The Swedish Perspective
No full textThis article examines Sweden’s adaptation of its national military logistics to align with NATO standards following its accession to the Alliance. Focusing on interoperability, strategic alignment, and logistical resilience, the study draws on expert interviews and a targeted literature review to evaluate Sweden’s capability transformation. The findings reveal key challenges in integrating national systems within NATO’s collective framework, including infrastructure limitations, and highlight the critical role of command systems, standardization, a unified taxonomy, joint exercises, and Host Nation Support in enabling seamless logistical coordination. Sweden’s experience offers valuable insights into broader discussions on alliance integration, military mobility, and defense planning within the Nordic region
Kommunal krisberedskap i samverkan med frivilliga försvarsorganisationer : Förutsättningar, utmaningar och ledningsstrategier
No full textThis study examines how six Swedish municipalities coordinate and direct voluntary defence organizations (FFO) in crisis management, despite lacking formal command authority. Using a research-based analythical framework structured around three themes - formal platforms, leadership, and relational factors - the municipalities´ practices are analysed. Five of the six municipalities have signed agreements with the Voluntary Resource Group (FRG), enabling some degree of control over FFOs during manageable crises such as wildfires, floods, and pandemics etc. However, they lack preparedness to coordinate multiple external actors in more complex and prolonged crises, which prior research highlights as essential. Formalization in the studied municipalities is limited; the agreements are simple and lack clear platforms or structures for joint work processes. Leadership is perceived as inclusive and responsive but remains informal. Together with high levels of trust, this leadership forsters functional collaboration, despite a power asymmetry between maunicipalities and FFOs. The lack of formalization may be partially explained by small-scale contexts, pragmatism, and mutual trust, but this could also be viewed as a weakness in Sweden´s crisis preparedness. The study introduces an analythical framework based on previous research, which highlights strengths and weaknesses in interorganizational collaboration. This framework can be applied in future studies involving more actors and municipalities and may also contribute to further theoretical development within the fielld of collaboration in crisis management
Supporting Future Military Command- and Control (C2) System Design : Defining Method Components to Enhance the Existing Development Framework
No full textThe design of future military C2-systems is increasingly influenced by emerging technologies such as AI and autonomous platforms.These systems must operate across domains, evolve rapidly, and remain coherent with operational doctrine and organizationalprocesses. To manage this, architecture frameworks like the NATO Architecture Framework (NAF) are widely used. NAF supportsmodeling coherence and ensures traceability from capability needs to system implementations. However, it lacks methodologicalguidance. To address this gap, we introduce an extension to NAF, building on the principles of Situational Method Engineering(SME). Our proposal includes reusable method components. Specifically, it includes a MAP-based Navigation Guidance thatstructures design intentions and strategies in alignment with stakeholder needs, and two method chunks, supporting core designactivities. One method chunk supports designers to assess the relevance of integrating emerging technologies into existing C2-systems. The other method chunk enables exploration of how new technologies perform across operationally relevant andunderspecified scenarios. Both chunks are grounded in previously validated stakeholder goals and detailed design requirements,ensuring alignment with military capability needs. Our approach complements NAF by providing methodological guidance fornavigating integration decisions. This initial proposal shows how method chunks, combined with the Navigation Guidance, canenhance design adaptability and address socio-technical concerns such as stakeholder alignment and doctrinal coherence. Whileonly two method chunks have been constructed so far, the results demonstrate the potential of a modular, goal-aligned methodrepository to guide C2-system development. In future research, we focus on expanding the method component repository andevaluating the framework in a real-world setting
Organisation of functional competence within teams in a dynamic decision-making task
No full textIn safety- and security critical contexts such as crises management, emergency response and defence, actors must be able to manage complex problems. In this paper we study the organisation of functional competence within teams engaged in dynamic decision-making tasks, such as teams working within a command and control process. More specifically we investigate if team performance is affected by the level of variety of functional competence within teams, in relation to the level of complexity of their task. 18 teams with four members each, participated in experiments with a simulated microworld. Our results show no significant difference in the overall performance between the high variety teams and the low variety teams. However, process measures, such as decision-making speed, and the capability to extinguish fires in the simulated world, still indicate a performance advantage for the low variety teams, at least at a relatively higher level of external complexity
Kharkiv offensivens beslutsprocess
No full textThis study investigates how Ukraine accomplished the Kharkiv counter-offensive (2022). Ukraine lost the Kharkiv region in the early beginning of the invasion. After a few months, they started to plan a counter-offensive against Kharkiv and Kherson. The counter-offensive was quickly executed and successful. The purpose of this study is to understand the case by answering the research question: how can the outcome of the counter-offensive in Kharkiv be understood using the OODA-loop? The study also aims to highlight modern manoeuvre warfare and deception in a war with a transparent fog of war. The mythology used in this study is a qualitative text analysis. The purpose of the methodology was to understand the case and not the theory. The data used consisted of second-hand sources because the war was still going on, and it was hard to conduct when soldiers were still not able to tell their stories. The overall conclusion of the study is that Ukraine enabled the initiative by accomplishing its decision-making faster than Russia. Factors that are head components to their fast decision-making are their fast manoeuvring, use of light vehicles to strike in-depth, and deception. In other words, Russia acted on Ukraine’s initiative. This study contributes to increasing the understanding of modern manoeuvre warfare, deception, asymmetric warfare, and decision-making processes
Hybridhoten mot Sverige
No full textHybrid warfare is an ever-growing threat to Sweden’s national security. Hybrid warfare is the act of operating in the so-called grey zone between peace and open conflict. In Sweden, recent incidents have been reported that could be categorized as possible hybrid attacks. The problem with hybrid warfare is founded in the difficulty of detecting, attributing, and responding to hybrid attacks, as they often involve deniability, and non-military means that complicate traditional defense strategies. The purpose of this study is to investigate how hybrid warfare is conducted against Sweden today, using a theory-consuming approach and creating a theoretical framework based of Hoffman’s concept of hybrid warfare, Weissman’s Hybridity Blizzard Model, and Suchkov’s New Generation Warfare. Through a qualitative analysis of empirical cases of suspected hybrid attacks, the study seeks to understand the methods used, their effects on Swedish society, and the challenge that hybrid warfare poses to Swedish national security. The results of this study show that hybrid threats against Sweden are multifaceted, combining methods like sabotage, cyber influence, and psychological operations. These actions possible aim is to destabilize Swedish society, reduce trust in democratic institutions, and weaken the country’s resilience. The study concludes that hybrid warfare represents a persistent and evolving challenge that demands an enhanced capability to identify, classify, and manage hybrid threats within Swedish defense and security policy