Swedish National Terrorism Policy after "Nine-Eleven": problems and Challenges

The purpose of this study is to discuss the issue of Counter-Terrorism within a Swedish context, albeit in a comparative mode. The background is the rather new debate in Sweden as to what role various agencies should have in the area of CT.This debate took off after the findings of the Swedish Royal Commission investigating the "nine-eleven" events from a Swedish perspective. In the report (SOU 2003:32) several recommendations are put forth, dealing with issues such as how various agencies can work better together and how the Security Police - who is still identified as the "lead" agency in regard to CT operations - can bring in resources from other agencies, should the need arise. This study argues that the underlying premises for that report (and for the whole discussion about the CT-issue) is flawed in that it does not question the notion of the necessity of a "lead" agency (who therefore also is the sole instance of deciding what help, if any, might be needed. Furthermore, this underlying basis (of the role of the Security Police as lead agency)does not take into account the fact that other agencies might have knowledge, unbeknownst to the Police, due to lack of coordination and the flow of necessary Intelligence, that can be of critical value to any CT operation. The study argues that as long as these structural flaws in the system are there, nothing fundamental will change in the way Sweden is trying to deal, at present theoretically, with the issue of CT-policy.