“Plans made in peacetime are not worth much, but peace planning is essential.”
Carl Heath examines the quote attributed to US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, drawing on lessons learned from his work with authorities in war-torn Ukraine. It also illustrates what the Rise research institute and the University of Gothenburg are trying to do: prepare our authorities to deal with a present and future marked by crises.
– We live in turbulent times, from climate change to economic turmoil to geopolitical instability. When all of this happens at the same time, it is not possible to play the same game as before. You need to develop the ability to change the way you work, says Carl Heath, who leads research institute Rise’s work on digital resilience.
It is a major commitment to fundamentally change the way Swedish authorities work so that they can deal with wars and crises. Organizations that are used to working methodically need to learn the ability to quickly adapt to new conditions.
“This means that the current approach for authorities, regions and municipalities, which is to optimize and submit costs, needs to be replaced by a more disruptive approach with more risk-taking,” says Johan Magnusson, professor and director of the Swedish Center for Digital Innovation at the University of Gothenburg.
We’ll meet at Rise’s premises at the Lindholmen Technology Center in Gothenburg, a place that clearly shows that it is an experimental workshop that goes far beyond the Nid image of gray government offices. It is an old industrial building where storage shelves full of all kinds of equipment stretch up to the high ceiling. They contain boxes containing everything from underwater drones to gaming consoles to “super-powered” textiles.
Heath and Magnusson are the initiators of a new collaboration called Forum Total Defense, in which the University of Gothenburg will create 15 new doctoral positions filled with government employees who will be allowed to research how their own workplace can adapt their working methods to better cope with turbulent events.
– It will be a very Since this is an operational type of research, it deals with the everyday life and reality of the authorities. Those who take part should become a kind of super-disseminator of ideas who can have a systematic effect, says Carl Heath.
The second part of Forum Totalförsvar consists of leadership training at Rise, where public managers can participate in current research and learn to make changes to increase crisis preparedness.
“It’s about understanding what demands are placed on the management and control of an organization to enable the agency to do things it has never done before,” says Carl Heath.
The aim is for the activities to begin as early as April this year and to be jointly financed by the university, the research institute and the authorities involved.
Forum Total Defense was inspired a guideline published by the Swedish Armed Forces and the Civil Protection Authority (formerly MSB) in autumn 2025. There, authorities are reviewing various ways Sweden could become involved in major conflicts – from military attacks to cyberattacks – and drawing up new guidelines for the country’s authorities.
Perhaps most strikingly, crisis preparedness is similar to home preparedness guidelines for individuals. Just as we are advised to have enough supplies to last a week without assistance, authorities are encouraged to ensure that they can sustain their operations without external assistance for at least two weeks in the event of a crisis or war.
Last but not least, it’s about digital addictions. Today, a large part of Sweden’s IT infrastructure is dependent, not least on American suppliers. Even many programs developed by Swedish or European software companies use American cloud services to run applications or store data – and DN has previously reported on how this dependency can become a weapon in a conflict.
– There could be some kind of total digital drought. There are so many underlying dependencies that if the systems the home service uses require American infrastructure to function, in a worst-case scenario, one decision by Donald Trump could be enough to bring the entire operation to a halt, says Johan Magnusson.
Facts.Total Defense Forum
The initiative consists in part of a postgraduate program with 15 doctoral positions for which government employees can apply. They must be given the opportunity to research what is hindering change in their own agency, region or community.
It is partly a development program for public sector leadership teams who need to learn to strengthen their adaptability.
The initiative is a response to the fact that in September 2025 the Swedish Armed Forces and the Civil Defense Authority presented a new guiding document on how public administration should contribute to overall defense.
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