Traditionally, Nordic security arrangements have been characterized by a clear separation between policing and military functions. Today, hybrid threats, expanded preparedness mandates, and intensified crisis management demands are generating new forms of interdependencies among police, military, and civilian defence organizations. These shifts raise important questions concerning policing practices, professional expertise, inter-organizational coordination, legal authority, and accountability under conditions of heightened readiness. We invite empirically grounded and theoretically informed contributions that explore policing, police–military relations, and total defence across individual, organizational, and societal levels.
Call for abstracts – Nordic Journal of Studies in Policing
Policing, Security, and Preparedness in the Nordic–Baltic Region: From Total Defence to Whole-of-Society Security
Recent changes in the European security landscape – including hybrid threats, societal crises, and the renewed emphasis on total defence, comprehensive defence, and whole-of-society defence – have reshaped relations between policing, military, and civil defence actors in the Nordic–Baltic region. While these concepts are not uniformly used across countries, they capture closely related approaches to organizing security and preparedness. These developments challenge established distinctions between internal and external security and position policing as a key component of contemporary security governance.
This special issue invites contributions that examine police–military–civil society relations through a policing lens within total defence and related comprehensive or whole-of-society defence frameworks. We encourage analyses that conceptualize policing not only as the institutional activity of the police, but as a broader set of practices and logics concerned with order, preparedness, and the legitimate use of force. From this perspective, contemporary defence arrangements – bringing together police, armed forces and other civil actors – constitute key arenas where professional roles, authority, and democratic norms are negotiated and redefined.
Traditionally, Nordic security arrangements have been characterized by a clear separation between policing and military functions. Today, hybrid threats, expanded preparedness mandates, and intensified crisis management demands are generating new forms of interdependencies among police, military, and civilian defence organizations. These shifts raise important questions concerning policing practices, professional expertise, inter-organizational coordination, legal authority, and accountability under conditions of heightened readiness.
We invite empirically grounded and theoretically informed contributions that explore policing, police–military relations, and total defence across individual, organizational, and societal levels. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Policing roles within total defence and preparedness systems
- Civil–military cooperation within total defence and preparedness frameworks
- Legal, organizational, and ethical boundaries between internal and external security actors
- Knowledge transfer, organiztional learning, and inter-organizational collaboration
- Professional identities, moral judgment, and the use of force
- Comparative Nordic–Baltic perspectives on defense willingness and societal support
- The role of civil defence actors and pluralized forms of policing
- Public trust, legitimacy and democratic accountability in total defence arrangements
- The role of reserve forces and auxiliary policing functions in bridging civilian, police, and military domains
- Civil defence, resilience, and societal robustness in the context of total defence and whole-of-society security
We warmly welcome submissions of article proposals in the form of an abstract of no more than 300 words. Please send to: ingvild.knaevelsrud.rabe@phs.no.
Advisory board
Juha-Matti Huhta, PhD, Chief Inspector; Chief of Research, Development and Innovation Finnish Police, Finland
Tiia-Triin Truusa, PhD, Dean Baltic Defence College, Tartu, Estonia
Kira Vrist Rønn, Professor Department of Political Science and Public Management, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Special Issue Editors
Lotta Victor Tillberg, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Police Science, Södertörn University, e-mail: lotta.tillberg@sh.se
Martin Nøkleberg, PhD, Associate Professor (Førsteamanuensis), Norwegian Police University College (Politihøgskolen), e-mail: Martin.Nokleberg@phs.no
Special Issue Editors
This special issue is made possible with support from the Campus Totalförsvar network Polisen i totalförsvaret (Police in Total Defence), the Norwegian Police University College, and the Swedish Centre for Studies of Armed Forces and Society.
The timeline for the special issue is as follows:
2026
- June 30 - abstract submission deadline
- August 1 — letters of acceptance
- November 1 — first draft
- December 15 — potential workshop
2027
- March 30 — second draft
- Spring/summer 2027 — publication
Lotta Victor Tillberg
The Swedish Centre for Studies of Armed Forces and Society, SE
