Coordination and priorities in international collaboration in the materiel and logistics domain
Publish date: 2017-02-15
Report number: FOI-R--4388--SE
Pages: 48
Written in: Swedish
Keywords:
- international collaboration
- bilateral
- multilateral
- export support
- coordination
- prioritization
Abstract
International collaboration in the materiel and logistics domain constitutes an important part of the military defence acquisition. In the last years a clear shift has been expressed, that collaborations more clearly must contribute to the operative capabilities of the Swedish Armed Forces. The altered threat perception in the near environment has also lead to that security policy considerations shall have more impact on the steering and prioritization of collaborations. The purpose of this study is twofold: 1. to describe the coordination in and between different types of collaboration, and 2. to discuss the goals that the different actors have and which priorities this can lead to. The results of the report: The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is responsible for the coordination of the bilateral collaborations and Sweden has MoU2:s with 33 nations. However, there no MoU:s with the prioritized collaboration partners Denmark and Finland. The multilateral collaborations are more decentralized and in these representatives for different defence authorities participate in different groups on various levels without a clear, formal coordination. Data is not available regarding how many collaborations and meeting levels that Sweden participates in and a large share of the coordination is informal and dependent on individuals. Within bilateral collaboration an increased focus is expressed towards a small set of nations, primarily the U.S., Denmark and Finland. There is an ongoing shift of gravity within multilateral collaboration from EDA collaborations to NATO and NORDEFCO3. Export support is coordinated by FMV, but the initial contacts are managed primarily by the MoD. Export promotion is managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in close collaboration with the MoD. Export support leads to bilateral relations that not necessarily support the Armed Forces' operative capabilities.