ALPHA. Demokratiskolan.se is a PROTOTYPE · Content review in progress
Demokratiskolan
The Foreign interests card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 122 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaSafety & defense
  • Centre of gravityCentral government
  • Points of influence2 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe general election
Safety & defense

Foreign interests

(un)friendly countries, orgs & multi-nationals

Foreign powers try to influence Sweden through espionage, disinformation, strategic acquisitions and pressure on decision-makers. The defense against this is mainly national, but the targets are often local: a municipal waterworks, a port, a regional server or a polling district.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · protecting local targets & elections · approx 10 %
  • Region · protecting healthcare's systems · approx 5 %
  • State · spies, signals & psych defense · approx 80 %
  • EU · rules against influence · approx 5 %

The central government hunts the spies and the disinformation, but municipalities and regions own many of the targets. The general election steers the defense against influence.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe local targets
The regionHealthcare's systems
Central governmentThe defenders · centre of gravity
Who decides?
The municipal executive board (kommunstyrelsen), the protective security manager and the election committee.
The regional executive board and the region's security functions.
The Security Service (Säkerhetspolisen), FRA, the Swedish Psychological Defense Agency, the Swedish Armed Forces and the Government.
What do they decide?
Protect waterworks, ports, IT systems and procurement under the protective security act, and carry out secure elections locally.
Protect medical record systems, hospital operations and other security-sensitive activity against intrusion and espionage.
Counter-espionage, cyber defense, screening of foreign investments in sensitive activity and defense against disinformation.
Where are decisions made?
In the municipality's protective security analysis and in the election committee's work.
In the region's protective security work and IT operations.
In the agencies' work and the Riksdag's laws on protective security and investment screening.
Who pays?
Municipal tax: its own protection and the election administration.
Regional tax.
The central government budget.
Fastest way in?
The municipal election Ask how the municipality protects critical activity. You can work as a polling officer in the elections yourself.
The regional election The regional election matters indirectly, through how healthcare's systems and data are protected.
The general election The general election steers laws and resources. The agencies' advice on source criticism is open to everyone.
EUThe EU coordinates responses to disinformation and makes demands on the platforms, and sanctions against foreign powers are decided jointly. Shaped in the European Parliament election.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case An influence campaign ahead of the election
  1. State

    A foreign power sees an opportunity

    Ahead of a Swedish election, fabricated news and distorted clips spread on social media, aimed at questions where society is already divided. The sender is hidden.

  2. State

    The psychological defense detects and warns

    The Swedish Psychological Defense Agency identifies the campaign, warns publicly and supports media and public agencies. The Security Service investigates the state connection.

  3. EU

    The EU pressures the platforms

    The EU's rules force the large platforms to handle systematic disinformation and open their data for scrutiny. Sanctions against states involved are decided jointly.

    Point of influence

    The European Parliament election shapes the rules for the platforms, one of the few levers that bite on the global information environment.

  4. Municipality

    The election committee keeps the election robust

    The practical election is carried out by the municipality's election committee with thousands of polling officers. Paper ballots, manual counting and public vote counting make the system hard to manipulate.

    Point of influence

    You can work as a polling officer yourself, it is the municipality's election committee that recruits. The vote count is open for anyone to watch.

  5. Your everyday life

    Your feed is the front line

    The campaign is aimed at you, not at the central government. Checking the sender, looking for the original source and thinking before you share is the single biggest act of resistance. Source criticism is a citizen's skill, and the agencies' guides are openly available.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. Where have you yourself seen information you suspected was planted, and what did you do?

  2. How do you protect an open society against influence without closing the openness?

  3. What may foreign actors be allowed to own here: ports, power grids, media? Where do you draw the line?

  4. Whose responsibility is the disinformation: the central government's, the platforms' or yours when you share it on?

  5. What makes Sweden's election system, with paper and manual counting, hard to manipulate, and what is still vulnerable?

Glossary

Påverkanskampanj
Coordinated attempts by a foreign power to change opinion or decisions, often hidden.
Desinformation
Deliberately false or misleading information, spread to cause harm.
Hybridhot
Hostile acts below the threshold of war: cyber attacks, sabotage, influence, pressure.
Säkerhetsskydd
The protection of Sweden's most sensitive activities, including municipal and regional ones.
Valnämnd
The municipal committee that carries out the elections locally and recruits polling officers.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.