National strategy to meet the threat of terrorism
The fight against terrorism requires enhanced cooperation across national borders and across different policy areas. The Government has drawn up a national strategy in which it describes the measures that will be implemented and the principles that will guide efforts to combat terrorism.
The national strategy will be updated in the autumn of 2011. The purpose of this update is to describe how threats have changed and to draw up a strategy for how we will address new challenges in the overall fight against terrorism in the future.
Terrorism today
Terrorism is not a new phenomenon; it is a feature of the political history of modern Europe. One serious terrorist threat to Europe as well as the rest of the world now consists of groups who seek to legitimise the use of violence by reference to extreme interpretations of Islam. Another serious threat comes from individuals who use a distorted and sinister view of the world to justify committing massacres against innocent and defenceless people. Large-scale violence and destruction can be an end in themselves. Consequently, there is a greater risk of the civilian population suffering. The direct terrorist threat against Sweden and Swedish interests has previously been considered to be low-level, but the threat scenario can quickly change, and since the end of 2010 the threat assessment has been heightened.
The concept of terrorism encompasses other phenomena besides planning and carrying out attacks. It can involve propaganda and the spreading of violent messages, the raising of money and support for terrorist networks, indoctrination, recruitment for suicide attacks, training in terrorist action or bomb-making.
Strategy against terrorism
Sweden's counter-terrorism policy is to be placed within the framework of international law, including human rights and international humanitarian law. At the heart of Swedish counter-terrorism policy is the principle that threats can only be combated legitimately by using methods that belong in an open, democratic and legally secure society.
The fight against terrorism requires enhanced cooperation across national borders and across different policy areas. Sweden has joined the international fight against terrorism by participating actively in both EU and global cooperation, for example by acceding to a range of UN conventions and applying various UN resolutions in the area.
A major terrorist attack in Sweden would confront society with enormous challenges and strains. Much has been done to reinforce national structures and help strengthen national action. However, the threat of terrorism will persist for a long time to come and the Government would like to describe the additional measures that will be implemented and the principles that will guide the work.
Sweden must be well prepared and well organised, and must use its resources effectively and efficiently to meet the terrorist threat. The objective is for Sweden to work more effectively to pursue, prevent, protect against, and manage the consequences of terrorist activities. The measures taken up in the current strategy are therefore presented under headings corresponding to each of these areas.
Privacy and the rule of law
The fight against terrorism also raises the issue of the balance between society's need for security on the one hand, and the individual's legal rights and respect for human rights on the other.
The principle should be that the more serious the crime and the more difficult it is to investigate, the more latitude there should be to use different forms of secret investigative measures to fight it. That said, account must be taken of the balance between the combined effect of all such measures on the one hand, and the consequences that the measures taken together will have for privacy and the rule of law on the other. There can be no question of augmented powers unless such powers are combined with clear rules for their exercise and mechanisms for thorough scrutiny of the way they have been exercised afterwards. Since January 2008 there has been a government agency with a mandate to supervise the use of secret investigative measures by law enforcement agencies: the Swedish Commission on Security and Integrity Protection.
