culture19

We are all blind, more or less, for advantages and drawbacks of our own society (cf 1,2). Stevan Dedijer is a competent external witness of the virtues of contemporary Sweden. He was born 1911 in Sarajevo, attended Secondary School in Rome, Italy, graduated from Princeton University (physics) in 1934, worked as a journalist in Pittsburgh and New York, served in The 101st Airborne Division 1942-45, worked as journalist in Yugoslavia 1945-49. Dedijer was head of the Nuclear Institute, Belgrade, 1949 – 54, "Emigré" in Yugoslavia 1954-61, visiting scholar at the Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen, 1961-62, and Lund University, Sweden 1962-92, where he founded the Research Policy Institute. He served as university professor (docent) at the University of Lund, where he was awarded an honorary Ph.D. From 1992, he has worked as a researcher and lecturer in Dubrovnik, Croatia (Submitted March 26, 2004. Accepted May 4, 2004).

Below, I shall discuss what Sweden does not know about its rank among the 180 countries of the world in general and of the development of its "intelligence".

Few Swedes have access to the UN statistics of all the countries of the world on the ranking of various indicators or access to journals like The Economist or The Financial Times. A recent issue of The Economist, for example, published a ranking list on the use of information technology in different countries, that is the use of radio, TV, computers, internet, mobile telephones, and so on. In this list, Sweden ranks as number one and the US as number six.

In research and development (R&D), Sweden is also first by UN indicators. Sweden spends 3,8 % of its GNP on R&D compared to the US and the EU, which spend less than 3 percent.

Among all 180 countries, Sweden is ranked first in education, fifth in competitiveness, second in democracy and anti-corruption, fourth in standard of living, and second in social welfare.

In a world social welfare report for 2003, Robert Estis of the Social Welfare School, University of Pennsylvania ranked Sweden second after Denmark and the US as 26 on social welfare. According to this report, 10% of the US population belongs among the poor of the world, placing the US among the less developed countries in this respect.

I was amazed by the facilities every citizen of Sweden has available in a hospital . For instance, I had a private phone and a television set in my room. I had access to all kinds of doctors and nurses, I may need at any moment of the day.

All the services were done with a smile and utmost care for my known and unknown needs. I could not avoid comparing this to the situation in the US, where they still do not have medical service available to every citizen. There is a considerable complaint in the US about the high taxes that Swedes have to pay for all these services.

At one time in the 1960:ies, I was a visiting professor at Harvard University, the elite intellectual center in the US. For six weeks, snow was not removed from the streets, so it was very difficult to cross the street without breaking a leg. In Sweden, I have noticed that the first snow is removed as soon as it falls.

The snow observation and my experience with the Swedish hospitals told me that the Swedes certainly get what they need for the taxes they pay.

Finally, I want to include SIC, that is the Swedish Intelligence Community consisting of all the government units, corporations, cities and universities promoting, developing and studying "intelligence". In 1972, I started teaching and researching in Dartmouth College in the US and at Lund University on the subject of the intelligence and security of governments, firms, corporations and cities. This was the first university course of its kind, as acknowledged by the two directors of CIA, Bill Colby and Stan Turner and journals like the New York Times. Since then, I have published about 200 articles and reports on the subject.

In my research, I found that Sweden is the most advanced among all 180 countries of the world in this field. Thus, a report prepared in Malmö by a student states that today all universities in Sweden have courses in intelligence and security.

Two hundred Swedish firms are members of the Society of Professionals for Competitive Intelligence. For the last 25 years, the Swedish Employers´ Association, SAF has been very active in developing the intelligence and security of Sweden in all fields.

At a SAF conference, the head of military intelligence, MUST, general Erik Rosander, accepted my idea of an intelligent state by asking: what kind of information do we need to achieve Dedijer´s "intelligent community" idea? These are a few of the extremely important facts that most Swedes do not know about Sweden. I welcome any comments and questions.