By Leila Nezirevic
LONDON (AA) - Sweden, a country known for its non-alignment for more than 200 years, managed to avoid participating in both world wars and the Cold War, as well as the devastating consequences of those wars. But the country seems to have taken now a different turn after Russia launched a war against Ukraine last year, prompting Stockholm to take an unexpected step - siding and applying for membership in NATO, according to one expert.
Thanks to its neutral status, the Nordic country had also avoided being part of the Cold War, which came with huge military expenditures.
All these factors helped Sweden become one of the richest countries in Europe known for its generous welfare and diplomacy.
Sweden’s government now plans to reintroduce conscription for emergency services to shore up its defense capabilities.
“We’re going back to a situation where we have a formalized civil duty,” announced Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, joined by Defense Minister Pal Jonson and Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin at a news conference last week.
Bohlin said the scheme will ensure deploying of appropriately trained civilians within the municipal rescue services and strengthen their abilities to respond in a state of emergency or to any potential attack.
“Experiences from Ukraine are clear” when it comes to protecting the civilian population, “rescue services are put under very heavy pressure,” Bohlin said.
One of the consequences of this structural change in the Swedish foreign policy and military policy is to “engage people more in the ideas of war and the foreign threat, mainly from Russia and China,” Masoud Kamali, an internationally renowned professor of Sociology and Social Work at Mid Sweden University told Anadolu.
According to Kamali, re-enforcing civil service signals that NATO membership will affect everyone in Sweden, and this alliance is not just simply about “NATO soldiers and NATO forces coming to this country and doing joint training in Sweden.”
"The scheme points out that the Scandinavian country will have much higher expenditures for military services which in turn will impact the Swedish welfare state that is already under attack,” added Kamali, who was previously appointed by the Swedish government as the special investigator in the question of integration, structural discrimination, and power in the country.
All of this is going to further “increase social problems” that the country is currently facing, he said.
- 'Warfare government'
In Kamali’s opinion, NATO membership and Sweden’s willingness to accept the neoliberal policy led by the US and other countries that are skeptical and even negative of the role of the state as a welfare state is clearly leading the country to move away from a peaceful development, and instead to “prepare itself for war.”
Since World War II, the newly elected right-wing government led by the Moderates party has always advocated for Sweden to take part in the Cold War and to join NATO.
This “warfare government and not welfare government, needs people who are not going to cost anything,” as according to neoliberal policy “you have to make the governance cheap,” said Kamali.
They need “servants for the government, for the market, and for the new policy,” and the civil service means that “everybody in Sweden without receiving any salary will have to contribute to the defense of the country if the war comes,” he expressed.
“Following what (former US President John F.) Kennedy said, don't tell us what this country did for you, you have to think and say what you're going to do for this country. This is the policy that the new government has, and the civil service policy is really connected to this neoliberal policy of the new government,” Kamali explained.
Becoming a full member of NATO means that the country will need to host alliance forces and contribute economically and militarily, and the government needs civil service to help due to “reduced taxes for rich people in this country,” he expressed.
“The government is a representative of the market, not of the people. That's the problem,” Kamali added.
- 'A new cold war'
According to sociologist Kamali, the world is already involved in a cold war, and Sweden, despite managing to stay away from the conflict for decades, is now on its way to becoming fully engaged in a possible war.
“We are witnessing a new cold war developing, and on one side we have NATO, and on the other side Russia, China, Iran, and some other small countries.”
The Scandinavian country previously had good relations with all those countries, however now it is “completely cooperating with NATO,” said Kamali.
He added that Sweden ending decades of neutrality means that the country is fully participating in a cold war currently developing.
Another sign that Sweden is heading toward participating in a possible cold war is that “the government started a new policy called the authority for combating psychological warfare,” which allows anyone critical of the government to be considered an enemy -- “a known Cold War policy” -- Kamali stressed.
He pointed out that Sweden was never threatened by Russia and so the government’s decision to become part of NATO is a “political decision, not a decision based on facts.”
The consequences of Sweden becoming a NATO member will be “huge for people in this country” and this cold war mentality “is already here,” according to Kamali.