Organising civil preparedness in Finland, Sweden and Norway - Comparing national approaches
Laakso, Katri (2019)
2019
Nordic MP in Innovative Governance and Public Management
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2019-06-18
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201907052480
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201907052480
Tiivistelmä
Our security environment has become more complex during the past years and the variety of threats and vulnerabilities that emerge have become more unpredictable and transboundary. Civil preparedness is a concept which is used to address cross-sectoral security matters focusing on sustaining the essential societal functions, ensuring basic supply to the population and acting in extraordinary circumstances as well as the civilian sector’s ability to support the military defence if needed. The organisation of civil preparedness is a national matter and the ways governments have organised it varies. This study seeks to find out how civil preparedness is conceptually understood and institutionally organised in Finland compared with the concepts and institutional arrangements in Sweden and in Norway.
The study begins by presenting a concept map aiming to increase the understanding of the studied phenomenon of civil preparedness as a broad and cross-sectoral security matter, while it also illustrates the interdependency of the different concepts. Then, a theoretical framework based on security governance studies is built, focusing on complexity as an inherent part of security governance and security mentalities as ways to approach and handle security. The theoretical framework will be used in understanding the core findings and in finding theoretical logics and linkages to the factors identified in the analysis.
The case-oriented comparative study uses qualitative data based on official documents and an expert interview. Content analysis was used as a method for analysing the data. Contextual factors explaining the findings are especially looked for from the strategic decisions implemented regarding the national security and defence policies in the studied countries during the past years and by mirroring the findings to different ways to govern security.
The national approaches to civil preparedness have been modified in Finland, Sweden and Norway during the years to better respond to the new security environment. However, the development has not been similar in all the studied countries and different solutions have been implemented. The findings show that civil preparedness has been conceptually covered in fundamentally different way in Finland compared to the concepts established in Sweden and in Norway. Due to the differences between the conceptual understandings of civil preparedness, also the institutional arrangements established for it varies between the studied countries. While Sweden and Norway are clearly aiming for strong coordination in the field of civil preparedness in their total defence approaches, Finland is counting on its joint preparedness model of comprehensive security in which the concept of civil preparedness is not a separate entity. The studied countries are often characterised by similarity which applies also to the identified security mentalities behind the approaches, while important differences in the strategic decisions made regarding the national security and defence policies exist.
The study begins by presenting a concept map aiming to increase the understanding of the studied phenomenon of civil preparedness as a broad and cross-sectoral security matter, while it also illustrates the interdependency of the different concepts. Then, a theoretical framework based on security governance studies is built, focusing on complexity as an inherent part of security governance and security mentalities as ways to approach and handle security. The theoretical framework will be used in understanding the core findings and in finding theoretical logics and linkages to the factors identified in the analysis.
The case-oriented comparative study uses qualitative data based on official documents and an expert interview. Content analysis was used as a method for analysing the data. Contextual factors explaining the findings are especially looked for from the strategic decisions implemented regarding the national security and defence policies in the studied countries during the past years and by mirroring the findings to different ways to govern security.
The national approaches to civil preparedness have been modified in Finland, Sweden and Norway during the years to better respond to the new security environment. However, the development has not been similar in all the studied countries and different solutions have been implemented. The findings show that civil preparedness has been conceptually covered in fundamentally different way in Finland compared to the concepts established in Sweden and in Norway. Due to the differences between the conceptual understandings of civil preparedness, also the institutional arrangements established for it varies between the studied countries. While Sweden and Norway are clearly aiming for strong coordination in the field of civil preparedness in their total defence approaches, Finland is counting on its joint preparedness model of comprehensive security in which the concept of civil preparedness is not a separate entity. The studied countries are often characterised by similarity which applies also to the identified security mentalities behind the approaches, while important differences in the strategic decisions made regarding the national security and defence policies exist.