Sweden’s Cybersecurity at Crossroads: Governance, Technology and Geopolitics, 2000-2040

Cybersecurity, innovation in strategic technologies, and geopolitical uncertainty are three issues of great concern.

About the project

Separately, each issue is among the top worries of decision-makers globally, and at every level of European society. Together, as a nexus of issues, the combined risk poses an even bigger challenge that demands immediate action. In particular, cybersecurity is increasingly shaped by the sophistication and evolving strategies of adversaries as well as the geopolitical realities of AI, computing power (including semiconductors), and 5G communication technologies, which jointly define the capabilities and vulnerabilities of digital infrastructures.

Sweden cannot afford for this cluster of digital technologies to be her Achilles’ heel. Not since the late 1930s, and again in early 1950s, have the uncertainties - and the need for careful analysis - been greater.

This project builds on a comparative, interdisciplinary analysis of this cybersecurity/strategic technology nexus, focusing on the evolution of continuities and discontinuities in Sweden’s historical paths, as well as on the sources of variation between different states.

Building on those perspectives, the study aims at explaining how, if at all, Sweden can develop policies to pivot her current approaches to the nexus while more effectively grappling with the domestic and geopolitical challenges defining this space.

Research team