Шведский советник по обороне призывает Новую Зеландию создать агентство психологической защиты

Sweden's defence adviser to Australasia says this country needs a psychology defence agency like his homeland has. New Zealand like other countries is grappling with a rise of so called 'grey zone' operations by hostile states that includes spreading disinformation. Jan Eldeblad says Sweden has been learning lessons from Russia's war on Ukraine. It set up a Psychological Defence Agency inside its defence ministry in 2022. New Zealand could benefit from having such an agency that is important for identifying and counteracting information from hostile sources, Eldeblad said. "It is very important to educate people," he said. The agency is currently working to raise awareness ahead of Sweden's general election next month, emphasising people need to understand and learn from what is going on. "Don't be fooled", "What is your responsibility" are among messages on its website. Eldeblad has been in Wellington talking to researchers, military and civil defence people advocating a sea-change in the speed and nature of decision making in the shadow of the new, but now typical, type of grey-zone or "hybrid" warfare. "We should not think about as it was during the Second World War 'cos that isn't what will happen in future," he told a recent Victoria University Centre for Strategic Studies forum. Combating the new warfare required teamwork to understand and adapt to what was going on "under the radar" at a speed that took control of the timing out of the target country's hands. The question now was what a country had to do to be ready for a crisis, and to focus on actions not organisations. "All has to be involved," he said. Sweden calls it a 'total defence' approach across both the military and civilian sides. One upshot was Swedes had begun thinking about external threats to society much more, and steps were taken to link civil and military agencies to work together, and with industry. Learning quickly had to become a national capability, he added, just as it has in Ukraine where he had done a lot of work. "They are learning so fast." He noted how some military units in Sweden had asked defence headquarters to step back while aiming to double the speed of approving changes, and they did, and the changes took just six months. "It's possible to do if it is supported." Several defence analysts in New Zealand in opinion pieces this year have argued the country is far too slow learning lessons from Ukraine about the need for speed to adopt emerging technology and weapons like drones, versus big expensive conventional things like frigates. Ex-army officer Graeme Doull has suggested an independent organisation that could act at commercial speed would be better at quickly getting new tech so troops could be training with it sooner. "Technology can be bought. Competence cannot," Doull wrote this month. Dr Del Carlini wrote this month that the navy should be dismantled to start again with a blank canvas with maritime drones to the fore.