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Värnpliktiga ur grundutbildningskompanierna samt anställda befäl och soldater ur beredskapskompaniet från Göta ingenjörregemente, Ing 2 genomför kompaniövning.Göta ingenjörregemente, Ing 2, är Sveriges enda ingenjörregemente. Förbandet utbildar officerare och soldater till ingenjörförband med specialkompetens att utföra kvalificerade fältarbeten för nationella och internationella uppgifter. Göta ingenjörregemente finns i Eksjö.

Photo: Antonia Sehlstedt/The Swedish Armed Forces.

War Studies

The War Studies discipline at the Swedish Defence University focuses on the study of war, warfare, and military power. Research explores how military capability is developed, led, organised, and sustained over time. It also analyses how this capability is applied in operations, war, conflict, and crises.

War Studies holds a central position within the university’s broader research fields of defence, crisis management, and security. The research contributes to Sweden's security and plays an important role in developing knowledge about subjects such as military strategy, conflict management and conflict areas, and warfare.

As a social science, War Studies examines war and the exercise of military power. Research covers the creation, leadership, organisation, and maintenance of military capability over time, as well as its application in military operations, war, conflict, and crises. The field also includes broader societal and ethical aspects, along with critical perspectives on war and warfare. It has both a general knowledge-generating dimension and a practice-oriented dimension linked to officer education. War Studies is unique in Sweden and is only offered at the Swedish Defence University.

The research is characterised by a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches, incorporating both conventional and critical perspectives. It contributes to the international research frontier in multiple areas and strengthens the integration of research into the university’s educational programmes and courses.

The research is thematically divided into several subfields, including:

  • Civil wars and military interventions
  • Critical war studies
  • Modern warfare
  • Future war and warfare
  • Gender, peace, and security
  • Military organisation and profession
  • Modern warfare

Within these subfields, research topics include military strategy, doctrine, information warfare, total defence, the ontology and epistemology of war, nuclear weapons, gender and war, urban warfare, military tactics, rebel groups and networks, conflict management and peacekeeping with military resources, intelligence, military operations, civil-military relations, defence logistics, hybrid threats and hybrid security, the use of military force, military theory, unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), the relationship between war, society, and politics, NATO, and war gaming.

The Department of War Studies hosts several research groups corresponding to these themes, engaging both researchers and doctoral students. In addition to established research groups, smaller specialised research environments focus on areas such as defence logistics and war gaming.

Research groups in War Studies

The Civil wars and military interventions research group (CWAMI) provides an interdisciplinary forum for scholarly discussions on various aspects of civil wars, insurgencies, terrorism, irregular warfare, unconventional warfare, counterinsurgency, peace operations, humanitarian interventions, etc.

The aim of the group is to promote interdisciplinary research and facilitate the discussion between scholars and practitioners on issues related to the past, present and future of the field.

Group convener: Kersti Larsdotter

The Critical war studies research group (CWS) is the research group for critical, normative and ethical aspects of war and military organizations.

We place focus on foundational ideas for war and war making as well as the technological and material aspects of war.

Group conveners: Maria Eriksson Baaz and Sebastian Larsson

The research group has a forward-looking orientation and addresses the challenges and possibilities of modern warfare and the new ideas/concepts and trends that are developing with regard to areas such as drones/unmanned aircraft, sensors, the next generation of weapons, AI, cyberwarfare, intelligence and space-based warfare.

Group convener: Stefan Lundqvist

The Gender, peace and security research group (GPS) aims to be a friendly environment for those working on gender-related issues and a space to explore issues of peace, war, security, justice and more. Whether you already have a fully developed research project using gender analysis/feminist approaches or whether you are just curious about what such perspectives might add to your project. Welcome!

Group conveners: Jenny Hedström and Annick Wibben

The group focuses on issues related to military organisations and the military profession.

Group convener: Sofia Ledberg and Jan Ångström

The research group Modern warfare provides an interdisciplinary forum for scholarly discussions about various aspects of strategy, operational art and tactics. The aim of the group is to promote high-quality research and to facilitate discussions between researchers and practitioners.

Group convener: Jan Ångström

Publications

Staff

Here you can search for employees at the Department of War Studies:

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