Conceptualising total defence: inter-organisational structures in a comparative perspective

The past decade has seen the resurgence “total defence” across Nordic and other European states. This whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to national security involves civilian, military, public and private actors in large-scale collaboration across sectoral and organisational boundaries. Despite growing scholarly interest, the structural and regulatory dimensions shaping these collaborative arrangements remain underexplored. Drawing on organisational sociology and theories of inter-organisational relations, this article examines how key institutions in Sweden, Norway and Denmark are formally structured for total defence and how they relate across the civilian-military spectrum. Through comparative, theory-guided analysis, we assess the formalisation, centralisation and complexity of each country’s total defence concept. The analysis reveals substantial variation in governance structures and actor configurations, illuminating conditions that facilitate or constrain inter-organisational collaboration. These findings contribute to current debates on Nordic defence integration, institutional design and future research on whole-of-society defence models in an evolving European security landscape.