Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies

20/02/2023

Call for Abstracts: NATO IN THE NORDICS

Conference 30-31 August 2023, Stockholm

The Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies (SJMS) and the Swedish Centre for Studies of Armed Forces and Society (CSMS) are calling for abstracts for a two-day conference in Stockholm on the overall topic “NATO in the Nordics”.

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Sweden and Finland’s subsequent historical decisions to apply for NATO membership, nothing in Northern Europe’s security architecture is business as usual. The prospect of Swedish and Finnish NATO membership is imbricated with, among other things, profound implications for NATO Northern strategy and how corporation among the Nordic countries in this new framework might look like – implications, which urgently call for scholarly attention and deliberation by the military studies community.

At the conference, we hope to gather the SJMS author and reader community, but welcome submissions from all scholars and military analysts with an interest in the topic.

Please distribute widely!

Full CfA:https://www.fak.dk/globalassets/fak/dokumenter/2023/-call-for-abstracts_SJMS_CMS_23.pdf

12/01/2023

The Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) are tasked with the military defence of Finland but also provide international assistance and participate in international activities and military crisis management. The Act on the Making of Decisions Concerning the Provision of and Request for International Assistance is essential for the ex*****on of the latter of these tasks – an act that has been amended following the lessons learned from the evacuation operation in Afghanistan.

Is it, however, still necessary to understand the FDF’s provision of international assistance and participation in joint operations and other international activities as an independent task? Should these functions, rather, be seen as means to an end in their own right, and be integrated appropriately into the FDF’s remaining tasks?

Read Mikael Lohse’s “Task of the Finnish Defence Forces – where are You going?” for enlightenment!

….free to read. Of course.

https://sjms.nu/articles/10.31374/sjms.152/

06/01/2023

The 21st century has introduced a new generation of aerial warfighting, so-called 5th generation weapons systems and platforms, which now include low-observable characteristics, high-precision weapons, as well as high levels of data sharing and implementation.

But what are the strategic, operational and tactical advantages for the Royal Danish Air Force of acquiring the Norwegian 5th gen air-launched cruise missile – the Joint Strike Missile – for its soon-to-be implemented F-35A fighter jets?

Read Karsten Marrup, Morten Pedersen, Anders M. Finderup, and Richard W. D. Larsen's new SJMS article “Længererækkende præcisionsmissiler i Flyvevåbnet: Joint Strike Missile til F-35 og de taktiske, operative og strategiske konsekvenser” to know more!

The article is Danish and open acces, of course!



https://sjms.nu/articles/10.31374/sjms.162/

17/11/2022

Western military doctrine is full of buzzwords, and various variations of “integration” is one of them. But what does integration actually mean in a military context?

This is the question, and in his brand new SJMS article "Integration is the New Black: Thoughts on Future Warfare in Academic and Military Discourses", John Nisser finds an answer to it by analyzing how the term “integration,” and its sister term “interoperability,” are used within academic and military discourses.

Among the article’s many interesting points, Nisser concludes that “integration” is generally understood as the merging of domains and services towards joint goals, while “interoperability” is often presented as the ability to combine systems, forces, and planning across services.

These findings are used to create a new conceptual model that distinguishes between operability, interoperability, and integration – a model useful for both scholars and practitioners when discussing or assessing capabilities to perform joint operations.

Free to read!



https://sjms.nu/articles/10.31374/sjms.169/

16/11/2022

It’s not often you get the chance to hear some of the most prominent commanders of our time such as General David H. Petraeus, General John Nicholson & Lieutenant General Mart de Kruif express their views on the commander’s function, but here it is!

In his new SJMS article “What Military Commanders do and how they do it: Executive Decision-Making in the Context of Standardised Planning Processes and Doctrine”, Søren Sjøgren asks 30 NATO commanders and senior staff officers about the executive decision-making function and about how the person at the top of the organisation makes decisions.

Pointing toward the importance of understanding the limits of doctrine and the necessity to supplement textbook solutions with professional judgement, Sjøgren’s article offers a highly important and timely meditation on what it takes to be an officer at the highest level.

Free to read, of course.



https://sjms.nu/articles/10.31374/sjms.146/

16/11/2022

It’s not often you get the chance to hear some of the most prominent commanders of our time such as General David H. Petraeus, General John Nicholson & Lieutenant General Mart de Kruif express their views on the commander’s function, but here it is!

In his new SJMS article “What Military Commanders do and how they do it: Executive Decision-Making in the Context of Standardised Planning Processes and Doctrine”, Søren Sjøgren asks 30 NATO commanders and senior staff officers about the executive decision-making function and about how the person at the top of the organisation makes decisions.

Pointing toward the importance of understanding the limits of doctrine and the necessity to supplement textbook solutions with professional judgement, Sjøgren’s article offers a highly important and timely meditation on what it takes to be an officer at the highest level.

Free to read, of course.

Article: What Military Commanders do and how they do it: Executive Decision-Making in the Context of Standardised Planning Processes and Doctrine

03/11/2022

In a geopolitical situation where the need to retain skilled military personnel is more vital than ever, empirically based knowledge about why pilots leave the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) and recommendations as to how to retain them is vital.

Such knowledge is precisely what Sophie Bosdotter, Tommy Wellborg & Johan Sandström present us with in their new SJMS article “Why Fighter Pilots Are Leaving the Swedish Armed Forces – and How to Retain Them.

The article zooms in on the factors and circumstances related to the work motivation of pilots by examining both the perspectives of fighter pilots serving today and the perspectives of those who have chosen to leave the SAF since 2013.

Among other findings, Bosdotter, Wellborg & Sandström argue that there is no single inducement for fighter pilots to leave the SAF, but, rather, that there exist a multitude of different reasons for leaving. This also means that retention efforts must differ, depending on type and experience level of pilots.

Article: Why Fighter Pilots are Leaving the Swedish Armed Forces – and how to Retain them

31/10/2022

It's no surprise that Swedish coastal defence has changed over the last 400 years, but what, exactly, has this change consisted in? And what lessons can be drawn from this very specific case regarding the changing nature of war as an institution of international society in general?

Charlotta Friedner Parrat,'s fascinating new SJMS article “Swedish Coastal Defence over Four Centuries: War As a Changing Institution of International Society” explores these questions by drawing on the English School of international relations, concluding, among other things, that "Sweden’s defensive capacities can be understood as an insurance policy rather than a tool to be employed offensively."

Open access as always!

Article: Swedish Coastal Defence Over Four Centuries: War as a Changing Institution of International Society

06/10/2022

How do you get PME students to develop “strategic mindsets” through matrix games?

According to Carsten F. Rønnfeldt, Daniel E. Helgesen & Bjørn Anders Hoffstad Reutz, you do so by repeatedly making students apply theoretical knowledge to solve the kind of practical problems matrix games can generate. Doing so aids and improves the ability to make informed decisions, while also helping future officers become familiar with chance, uncertainty, and other crucially important features of the military profession.

Starting off from a specific wargame – MONUSCO, named for the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and designed at the Norwegian Military Academy – the article “Developing Strategic Mindsets with Matrix Games” alerts us not only to the value of matrix games in a PME context, but also for other professional studies.

You guessed it: Free to read!



https://sjms.nu/articles/10.31374/sjms.132/

30/09/2022

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the United States held the Northern Flank a low priority in maritime-strategic considerations. Increasing Russian naval power, however, and a deterioration of the relationship between NATO and Russia has seen the Northern Flank return to maritime-strategic thinking around 2016.

But what are the central tenets of the emergent maritime-strategic approach of the United States to the Northern Flank?

In his new SJMS article “High Profile, Low Availability: The Emerging US Maritime-Strategic Approach to NATO’s Northern Flank”, Amund Lundesgaard introduces the concept of High-Profile, Low-Availability (HIPLA) to conceptualize U.S approaches. While the article uses the northern flank as a case study, many of points made by Lundesgaard are universal to the US Navy and are therefore relevant to other regions as well.

Topical, as ever. And free to read.

Article: High Profile, Low Availability: The Emerging US Maritime-Strategic Approach to NATO’s Northern Flank

27/09/2022

Might aspects of educational wargamging normally considered challenges or undesirable in fact be desirable and increase learning?

In “To Learn or not to Learn: On the Importance of Mode Switching in Educational Wargames,” Vårin Alme & Adeline Hvidsten demonstrate that to be the case, using pedagogical theory developed by John Dewey.

Combining the two authors’ own experiences conducting wargames with interviews with students and professionals on learning through wargaming, the article demonstrates how “mode switching”— i.e. the change from “experience” to “reflection” – is vital to gain the full education benefit from a wargame.

The article forms part of the brand-new SJMS special issue, “Military Exercises and Wargaming in Professional Military Education,” guest-edited by Associate Professor Carsten Rønnfeldt from the Norwegian Defence University College.

Open acces, of course!



https://sjms.nu/articles/10.31374/sjms.123/

21/09/2022

New SJMS special issue out: Military Exercises & Wargaming in Professional Military Education

The SJMS team is proud to present this latest special issue, guest edited by Associate Professor Carsten Rønnfeldt from the Norwegian Defence University College. The issue covers wargaming and exercises from a plethora of fascinating perspectives, and features essays from internationally recognized capacities within the field, both military and civilian.

What are, for instance, the most important “dos” and “don’ts” of wargaming? Read Håvard Fridheim's article – structured as eight broad lessons on “dos and don’ts” to consider when planning and running wargames – to identify best practices and avoid common pitfalls within wargaming.

Or dig into Peter Perla’s fascinating introduction to the special issue, where the author introduces the “cycle of research” and the “cycle of learning” based on decades of experience with wargaming.

Or you could simply go on a journey of discovery through the special issue’s 12 articles and return with highly relevant and up-to-date knowledge about one of the most important areas of development within military education and training.

This is an important one!



https://sjms.nu/collections/special/military-exercises-and-wargaming-in-professional-military-education/

19/09/2022

In 2005–2006, Denmark held a seat in the United Nations Security Council and, thus, had an opportunity to gain influence on international security issues otherwise not available to small states.

But how did Denmark prepare and execute a her
strategies to maximize influence in the Security Council?

Using newly released archival records from the Danish
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Troels Burchall Henningsen investigates three instances where Denmark developed and executed issue-specific strategies: the establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission, the direction of the Counter-Terrorism Committee, and the referral of war crimes in Darfur to the International Criminal Court.

Based on this, the article tracks the ways in which Danish diplomacy sought to gain influence despite Denmark’s lack of relative power.

The article is highly relevant both as an overall analysis of a small state’s ways of achieving success in a UN context and as a specific lesson for the current Danish election campaign for membership of the Security Council in 2025–2026.

The essay forms part of a new SJMS special isse, "Strategy - what is the use of it?", guest edited by Peter Viggo Jakobsen from the Royal Danish Defence College.

Free to read. Bien sûr.



https://sjms.nu/articles/10.31374/sjms.140/

16/09/2022

Prestige matters…

…especially for small states in their relations to great powers.

For this reason, the gaining of prestige in order to forward general security interests is often used as the main analytical framework to understand small states’ military deployments.

But what if, alongside prestige, small states also pursue other, and more diverse national ends in connection with military deployments?

Read Jan Werner Mathiasen’s new essay “Looking beyond Great Power Prestige: How Small States Pursue National Ends in Theater-Specific Military Deployments,” for an analysis of how Danish deployments to the Horn of Africa, Helmand, and Libya at the theater-specific level did precisely that.

The essay forms part of a new SJMS special isse, "Strategy - what is the use of it?", guest edited by Peter Viggo Jakobsen from the Royal Danish Defence College.

Free to read, as always.



https://sjms.nu/articles/10.31374/sjms.142/

14/09/2022

"Strategy - what is the use of it?"

‘The SJMS Team is stoked to present our latest special issue: "Strategy - what is the use of it?"

Guest edited by Peter Viggo Jakobsen and featuring military studies- and strategy scholars from the Royal Danish Defence College and University of Stavanger, the special issue's articles are about highly important topics related to strategy, particularly for small states such as Denmark.

One such topic is analyzed in “Denmark’s Offensive Cyber Capabilities: Questionable Assets for Prestige, New Risks of Entrapment”, in which Mikkel Storm Jensen compares the Danish acquisition of offensive cyber capabilities with another recent Danish acquisition, the F-35 aircraft.

Noting that the novel Danish offensive cyber capabilities, as opposed to new aircraft capabilities, create risks of entrapment, Storm Jensen cautions decision makers to “evaluate offensive cyber on terms other than those of conventional means.”

The whole special issue is open access and a must-read for the strategy inclined.

Article: Denmark’s Offensive Cyber Capabilities: Questionable Assets for Prestige, New Risks of Entrapment

12/09/2022

When it rains, it pours!

Last week, SJMS published a minor truckload of fascinating articles, starting with the third essay in our “Ukraine – A New Horizon of Warfare?” special issue: “Russian Logistics in the Ukrainian War: Can Operational Failures be Attributed to logistics?”

In their essay, Per Skoglund, Tore Listou & Thomas Ekström examine the underlying reasons for the presumable failure of Russian logistics by using “logistics principles that can be used to describe the Russian way of logistics planning,” and by “inferring whether failing logistics slowed down the military operations or if failing operational conduct led to revised operational plans that could not be sustained logistically.”

The article gives yet another highly important and topical insight into a Ukraine war which recently turned from bad to worse for the Russian aggressors.
...and it is, of course, open access.

Article: Russian Logistics in the Ukrainian War: Can Operational Failures be Attributed to logistics?

15/08/2022

The second essay in our SJMS special issue “Ukraine – A New Horizon of Warfare”, featuring shorter discussion pieces on the war in Ukraine, is out now with the apt title: “A New Horizon in Urban Warfare in Ukraine?”

Noting how the Russian invasion serves as yet another illustration of the urban nature of contemporary war, Kristin Ljungkvist provides an overview over the type of urban warfare we see in Ukraine and argues that it differs from what Western military organization and strategic thinkers plan for.

Moreover – and perhaps surprisingly – Ljungkvist views the brutal combination of siege warfare with heavy and indiscriminate bombardment of cities as having more to do with medieval than modern warfare.

What are the Ukrainian answers to this strategy?

Read the highly relevant and important article to find out.

Open access. As always.



https://sjms.nu/articles/10.31374/sjms.165/

Article: A New Horizon in Urban Warfare in Ukraine?

01/08/2022

The first essay in our SJMS special issue “Ukraine – A New Horizon of Warfare”, featuring shorter discussion pieces on the war in Ukraine, is out now: “The Composition and Challenges of Foreign Fighters in Ukraine”.

In his essay, Naman Karl-Thomas Habtom uses available sources to examine the demographic constitution, structure, outward facing role, and limited operational value of the foreign fighting force in Ukraine.

Habtom further argues that Ukraine’s call for foreign volunteers was primarily driven by a desire to harness their potential propaganda value abroad, principally in the West,and that their relative importance has declined due to the structural challenges they have faced, their limited necessity in Ukrainian propaganda efforts after the few first weeks, and the diminished significance of foreign fighters in combat itself.

An extremely topical and relevant article - and free to read, of course!



https://sjms.nu/articles/10.31374/sjms.151/

16/06/2022

The maritime spaces on NATO’s northern flank, off the coast of western and northern Norway and south of the archipelago of Svalbard, play an important role in NATO’s security policy and defense planning. NATO’s ability to transfer reinforcements to its northernmost ally in the event of a crisis or conflict with Russia depends to a significant degree on the ability of the alliance to maintain control of the maritime and aerial approaches to potential ports of debarkation on Norwegian soil.

But when, where, and why does Russia issue warnings about missile launches and other potentially dangerous military activities in international waters and airspace west and north of Norway?

Read Kristian Åtland, Thomas Nilsen & Torbjørn Pedersen’s brand-new SJMS “Military Muscle-Flexing as Interstate Communication: Russian NOTAM Warnings off the Coast of Norway, 2015–2021”
for a systematic analysis of Russian NOTAM warnings in international waters and airspace off the coast of Norway in the period between 2015 and 2021.



https://sjms.nu/articles/10.31374/sjms.133/

20/04/2022

Heightened political tensions and advances in technological development have prompted Scandinavian countries to increase investment in military research and capability development.

Yet, what explains why actors sharing similar strategic cultures implement new technology for military purposes differently?

Read the fascinating new article “Military Innovation as the Result of Mental Models of Technology,” where Ola Modig and Kent Andersson’s apply a cognitive-psychological perspective to two cases of innovation processes - Swedish nuclear weapons development during the Cold War and developments in Swedish cyber defence during the first decades of the 21st century – to learn how shared mental models of new technology is more important for technology implementation than strategic cultures.

The article is , of course.

https://sjms.nu/articles/10.31374/sjms.117/

17/03/2022

Exceptional situations call for exceptional measures, also within the academic publishing community. As the tragic and unlawful invasion of Ukraine by Russia is unfolding, the military studies community faces a series of acute questions both regarding past assumptions about Russian and Ukrainian capabilities and about the very nature of strategy, doctrine and war itself in the current moment.

The editorial team has therefore decided to fast track a special issue of Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies which, both in contribution size and in the nature of the content, diverges from our normal publication modes.

We encourage members of the military studies community to respond to the call and to partake in this important and necessary conversation.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Special Issue

Ukraine: A New Horizon of Warfare?

Editors: Kristian Søby Kristensen, Anders McDonald Sookermany, Alastair Finlan, Peter Tillberg, Annemarie Peen Rodt Poucher, Thomas Crosbie & Jens Bjering

The fighting in Ukraine is provoking very profound questions about existing understandings of modern warfare and the relevance of mainstream military operations, concepts, doctrines and theories concerning the application of force. The use of innovative technologies in the form of armed drones, advanced anti-tank weapons, man-portable surface to air missiles and modern body armour have characterized the warfare in Ukraine. It has allowed numerically inferior defensive forces to exude extraordinary resilience and combat power in the face of an offensive campaign by a more powerful military foe. Is a new horizon of warfare unfolding in Ukraine?

In this special issue, we welcome discussion papers of around 4,000 words related to the practice of warfare in Ukraine and the significance of what is emerging in the fighting. Specifically, we want the discussion papers to address the question of ‘what is new in the warfare in Ukraine?’ in relation to any aspect of the fighting in the air, on land, at sea, in space or cyberspace and within civil society

Due to the editorial team’s desire to publish the issue as quickly as possible, the discussion papers will be submitted to an internal round of reviews and published as they come in.

Please forward any questions to Jens Bjering at [email protected] and go to the Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies’ homepage at https://sjms.nu/ to submit your manuscript.

We kindly ask that you write in the submission notes that the submission is for this special issue.

Submissions received later than May 15, 2022, will not be taken into consideration.

https://sjms.nu/about/calls-for-papers/

The Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies is published by the Royal Danish Defence College, the Swedish Defence University, the Norwegian Defence University College, the Centre for Military Studies, University of Copenhagen and the Swedish Centre for Studies of Armed Forces and Society.

09/03/2022

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a learner-centered pedagogical strategy that “empowers learners to integrate theory and practice, applying knowledge and skills to develop a viable solution to a defined problem.” Based on an underlying philosophy that learning ought to be considered a constructive, self-directed, collaborative and contextual activity, the principles of PBL accord both with the fundamental principles of military education and with the collective nature of the military profession itself.

Yet, how does PBL actually work in a professional military education setting? What are the beneficial effects of PBL and what are its potentially problematic aspects?

Using an explorative design, Rino Bandlitz Johansen, Anders McD Sookermany & Geir B. Isaksen have investigated how the principles of PBL affect learning outcomes among executive Master’s students following the Military Leadership (ML) course at the Norwegian Defence University College (NDUC).

The results of the investigation is described in their book chapter “Twisting the Pedagogy in Military Education – Experiences Drawn from a Problem-based Teaching Approach at the Norwegian Defence University College.”

The chapter is part of the recently published anthology “Transformation of the Military Profession and Professionalism in Scandinavia” and free to read on the SJMS Press homepage.



https://press.sjms.nu/site/chapters/e/10.31374/book2-k/

03/03/2022

“Russian so-called Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) capabilities such as long-range missiles, submarines, and modern air-defence systems form the cornerstone of an integrated and layered defence,” writes Sigbjørn Halsne in his all too relevant SJMS article “Competitive Strategies in the European High North.”

Studying and analyzing “Russian military strategy, concepts and capabilities as we find them today and as we are projected to find them in 10 to 15 years,” Halsne’s article scrutinizes defence efforts made by NATO and its key allies, while also exploring potential weaknesses in Russian military power in the High North.

The article is, as always, free to read.



https://sjms.nu/articles/10.31374/sjms.93/

Article: Competitive Strategies in the European High North

24/02/2022

According to Lotta Victor Tillberg, what it “means to be a skilled officer today in the Swedish Armed Forces is no longer what it meant during the post-Cold War period.” These changes to a large extent hinge on which types of knowledge an officer needs to act professionally; is the ideal officer’s knowledge mainly theoretical/explicit knowledge or experience-based/implicit know-how?

In her fascinating chapter “Mastering Both: The Planned and the Unforeseen. An Epistemological Investigation of Swedish Military Professionalism,” Tillberg explores these questions from an epistemological standpoint, suggesting alternative ways of rethinking and understanding the paradoxes and contradictions integral to the concept of modern military professionalism.

The chapter is part of The SJMS Press’ recently published anthology “Transformations of the Military Profession and Professionalism in Scandinavia,” edited by Anne Roelsgaard Obling and Lotta Victor Tillberg.

The book or parts thereof can be downloaded for FREE from the press site.



https://press.sjms.nu/site/chapters/e/10.31374/book2-g/

18/02/2022

The Royal Norwegian Air Force has acquired the F-35, a so-called “fifth generation” fighter, characterized by a “flexible use of military force and rapid information-exchange serving to maintain situational awareness in support of efficient command and control (C2)”.

Yet what is needed to make the F-35 integrate properly with other capabilities in the RNoAF? And how can the F-35 best help drive the Norwegian Armed Forces “towards a multi-domain force”?

Hanna Marie Bjerke and Sigmund Valaker’s new article “Command and Control in a Fifth Generation Air Force: Coordination Requirements of Air Operations with F-35 and the Command and Control-System of the Norwegian Armed Forces” provides us with important reflections on these questions with relevance both for Norwegian and other fifth generation air forces.

What a way to start the weekend!



https://sjms.nu/articles/10.31374/sjms.116/

Article: Command and Control in a Fifth Generation Air Force: Coordination Requirements of Air Operations with F-35 and the Command and Control-System of the Norwegian Armed Forces

14/02/2022

The notion of “sensemaking” is used extensively in a lot of different contexts to describe how actors navigate in and make sense of a complex, information-rich environment.

Yet, what relevance does the notion of sensemaking have for understanding the differences between success and failure on the tactical level? And how does sensemaking relate to a military unit’s “transactive memory systems”, i.e. the distribution, or lack thereof, of knowledge among the unit’s members?

Using the October 3, 2009 Battle of Kamdesh as his case study, Johannes Kibsgaard’s new SJMS article “Sensemaking og transaktive hukommelsessystemer I strid” provides us with a number of important insights into these questions,.

The article is in Norwegian and, naturally, open access.



https://sjms.nu/articles/10.31374/sjms.78/

26/01/2022

According to Vilhelm Holsting, “more empirical clarity on the historical emergence of values at the civil-military boundary” is needed – an empirical clarity, which a unique archive of military performance evaluation systems used by the Danish military in the course of 300 years might just provide.

In his fascinating book chapter “The Dynamics of Professional Values in Officership: A study of 300 Years of Officer Performance Evaluation Systems”, Holsting uses this unique archive of officer evaluations to trace how new values are incorporated into the norms of officership in a sedimentary way, thereby creating “new equilibriums between several incommensurable values.”

The chapter is a part of Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies Press’ new anthology “Transformations of the Military Profession and Professionalism in Scandinavia” which can be downloaded for free on the press site.



https://press.sjms.nu/site/books/e/10.31374/book2/