The Russians are Coming : A qualitative text analysis of external threat representation in official policy documents

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to elucidate which issues that are portrayed as external threats during a disarmament process versus an armament process in Sweden by studying two Defence Committee reports. To understand what is portrayed as external threats, an analysis of both reports and a comparison between them have been made. The research question for this thesis is: How are external threats portrayed in Defence Committee reports during a disarmament process versus an armament process? A qualitative text analysis is made with Carol Bacchi’s WPR method combined with the theory of securitization to analyse the material. The material consists of two Defence Committee reports, one from 2003 and one from 2019 to represent disarmament and rearmament. Previous research of Sweden’s disarmament process has shown that Russia is the main objective affecting Swedish defence policy. However, this thesis concludes that representation of the stability of the world order is affected by the United States being portrayed as reliable in case of conflict which affects the Defence Committee’s representation of external threats.