Från fara till frälsare: En kvalitativ textanalys av förändringar i den svenska NATO-debatten

Abstract: The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th 2022 changed European security policy immensely. One of the biggest policy reversals occurred in Sweden where the Social democrats abandoned their previously vehemently held opposition to a Swedish membership in NATO. The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how language is used by political leaders in order to facilitate changes in foreign policy. The study achieves this by analyzing how Swedish prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, portrays the Russian invasion and a possible Swedish NATO membership in her speeches between the invasion date and the Swedish NATO application. The theoretical framework used to understand and analyze the language of the speeches is securitization theory and the method used is qualitative text analysis. The study found that Magdalena Anderssons portrayal of the invasion changed from being portrayed as a threat to Ukraine and the international political system into being a threat to Sweden, whereas the portrayal of a NATO membership changed from being seen as a threat to Sweden to being seen as a necessary solution in dealing with Russian aggression.