Photo By Sgt. Monique ONeill | Government officials, military leaders, and subject matter experts from Sweden,...... read more read more
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STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Government officials, military leaders, and subject matter experts from Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Poland and the United States gathered at the Swedish Defense University on Dec. 2, 2019 to celebrate the publication of the Resistance Operating Concept (ROC).
The ROC is an applied academic tool which explores actions that a sovereign state can take to broaden its national defense strategy and prepare to defend itself against a partial or full loss of national sovereignty. It includes case studies and lessons learned from World War II and the Cold War.
“It has been important for me to contribute to this project as a civilian because I really use the concepts in my total defense training. It’s not only a military affair or only for Special Forces, but it’s also for the whole civil defense,” said Lars Hedstrom, Deputy Head of Department at the Swedish Defense University. “We need to understand that we can possibly be occupied by foreign adversaries, and this book shows us how we can work together with our national military and also with foreign forces. We can use the ROC as a way to frame discussions and strategize total defense.”
Members of Special Operations Command Europe, academic contributors from the Swedish Defense University and practitioners from other countries collaborated to develop and publish the ROC. The ROC is the result of a multinational writing effort on the topic of resistance.
“We take great pride at the Swedish Defense University to take part in this glorious event and to help launch this volume,” said Colonel Christian Jeppsson, Head of the Department of Military Studies at the Swedish Defense University. “We have a room full of theorists, military officers, civilians, practitioners and professional academics, and we are proud to be the natural meeting place for a topic like this.”
SOCEUR and a network of multinational academics initiated the Resistance Seminar Series in 2014, a succession of discussions intended to critically evaluate and develop “pre-crisis” activities for resistance and its preparation. The seminars eventually led to the development of the ROC to consolidate the topics.
“After many seminars, we discovered a need to frame the concept of resistance for Special Operations Forces,” said U.S. Army Col. Kevin D. Stringer, SOCEUR Deputy Director of Strategy, Plans and Policy. “The release of the ROC today and the robust roundtable discussion about it showed us that this document is a pivotal starting point to expand the theme to a broader audience within the conventional forces and also the civilian sector across Europe.”
The intention of the ROC is to explore and comprehend the core elements of effective resistance and its underlying resilience, within an entire government framework and to build upon historical examples. A wide variety of post-WWII Army doctrine contains similar information, but the purpose of the ROC is to compile the essential and key points for use by European military forces as part of their national defense plans.
“Currently there’s a lack of consideration for the idea of resistance,” said Robert Egnell, Vice-Chancellor of the Swedish Defense University. “Contemporary thinking is oriented more towards combat operations and less towards the uncomfortable thought of preparing for a resistance on occupied territory, but that’s what makes this event so important.”
SOCEUR actively works with European allies and partners to counter malign influence, build cohesion, rapidly respond to emerging threats, and if necessary, defeat aggression.
“When national resistance planning is integrated with allies and partners committed to the ideals of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and self-determination, it can become a powerful message against a potential adversary,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. General Kirk Smith, Commander of SOCEUR. “It places a potential adversary on notice that it cannot violate a nation’s territorial integrity and attempt to establish a new status quo.”
Collaborators foresee the ROC being used as a practitioner’s tool and an opening for the expansion of the resistance/resilience discussion.
“I am certain this publication will serve its purpose for strategists, policymakers, researchers, academics and practitioners to mention a few that will find the content in this work both informative and interesting as a building block and foundation for further studies, projects, education and doctrine development, “ said Brigadier General Anders Lofberg, Commander of the Swedish Special Operations Command. “It is a document for the future.”
| Date Taken: | 12.02.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 12.19.2019 04:09 |
| Story ID: | 356342 |
| Location: | STOCKHOLM, SE |
| Web Views: | 1,207 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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