Strategic Autonomy - EU:s agenda for Supply Preparedness Analyzed from a Swedish Total Defense Perspective

Strategic Autonomy is a contested but also increasingly established concept used in various EU policy and strategy documents (e.g. the trade- and industry policies and the Strategic Compass, a plan to strengthen EU:s security and defence policy by 2030). One crucial aspect of the concept has to do with EU:s goal to reduce and manage the Union's critical or sensitive dependencies in a world perceived as increasingly hostile and unpredictable. In parallel to these EU-initiatives similar concerns have been formulated on a national level in Sweden in the context of Sweden's total defence planning (which includes a specific goal to secure necessary supplies). How these two levels (national and union-level) of autonomy and preparedness will relate to each other in the future constitutes a complex but also increasingly urgent question to address. In this report, an analysis of the EUconcept strategic autonomy is presented from the point of view of Swedish total defence planning, focusing especially on security of supply issues.