When Officers Need Internal Enemies: Aspects of Civil-Military Relations in Scandinavia between the World Wars

Abstract

A main function of the secret security measures against internal enemies in Denmark, Norway and Sweden in the 1920s and 1930s was to provide, in a situation where the armed forces' traditional role of external defence was weakened, a satisfactory field of responsibility for the officer corps in the three countries. The security measures reflected specifically military enemy images, which saw an immanent Communist (or Socialist) threat to society. This allowed the officers to maintain a high opinion of their own importance, and confirmed their view of themselves as the real guardians of the nation's true interests, even if the job was thankless. Conceptually, these internal security measures may be seen as effects of an early form of `new' military professionalism. Such internal security work was one of several factors which alienated military officers from civilian society. The existence of secret armed forces, consisting of men chosen for their non-socialist political views and which could be mobilized on military initiative, in itself constituted a potential threat to the system which the officers were supposed to defend. The threat was never actualized, but there are several indications that military men involved in the internal security work were in fact willing to use the forces unconstitutionally.