Redefining security in terms of social cohesion

SWEDISH troops in ex Yugoslavia have been serving under the command of Nato officers, along, with other troops from the Nordic countries and Poland. And this force will soon come under nonNato command.

For the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mrs Lena Hjelm Wallen, these are radical changes in the European security landscape. On a visit to Dublin yesterday, where she met the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, for discussions on the Insh EU presidency and gave a lecture to the Institute of European Affairs, she said that "this reflects a shift in Swedish foreign policy, but also a change in Nato's way of acting".

Had she been asked a year ago whether Swedish troops would be serving under Nato command, she would have answered with an emphatic No, she explained in an interview. And yet the Swedish parliament has now given "almost unanimous support. Most Swedes are all for it and there is hardly any opposition." The Swedes had found they have lots to give and recognised changes in Nato as well as their own mindsets.

"In Sweden, the discussion has brought us to an obvious awareness that Sweden's non participation in military alliances can and must be combined with active participation in strengthening security in our surrounding world," she said in her lecture.

Sweden is a member of the Partnership for Peace organisation sponsored by Nato. It is pursuing a common security policy in the Baltic Sea area, which was consolidated by last weekend's summit of states bordering it - "the first such meeting since Hanseatic times 600 years ago," as Mrs Hjelm-Wallen put it.

Sweden, together with Finland, is taking a proactive role in the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy with a proposal that the EU take a role in military crisis management so as to ensure equality in mandating action taken in its name by the Western European Union.

All this is in marked contrast with the more hesitant role taken by the Government in European security arrangements, despite its commitment to explore closer involvement.

The Minister sees substantial overlap between Irish and Swedish attitudes and interests in the forthcoming EU presidency and InterGovernmental Conference, on security matters, but also on employment and drug trafficking. This reflects the very considerable development of relations between the two states over the last five years.

Public disenchantment with the EU in Sweden has become associated with cuts in welfare spending - "which are nothing to do with Brussels, according to Mrs Hjelm-Wallen. It is all the more necessary to involve the EU in projects that attract public support, if necessary by strengthening the EU's competences and capacity to deal with them.

Sweden has yet to decide on whether participation in economic and monetary union is appropriate and in its interests. A political decision will be taken on whether to hold a referendum in Sweden on the outcome of the IGC much will depend on how large the changes that emerge from it are.

At her lecture last might Mrs Hjelm Wallen underlined the revolutionary changes in European security. "According to Uppsala University's conflict data project, there have been 94 armed conflicts in the world in the period 1989-94. Only three or four of these were between states. In 1994, 42 armed conflicts were ongoing and all were internal conflicts".

It is therefore necessary to rethink many of the categories used to think about security, she argued. It is no longer so concerned with territory - "Security concerns the cohesion of societies rather than different countries ... We know that poverty and social misery are breeding grounds for political extremism and terrorism."

Democracy should reduce interstate conflicts, but only a more inclusive, co operative and open approach can make for "an ever more secure Europe at the end of the Cold War". She looked forward to Irish Swedish co operation in conflict prevention and crisis management.