Stockholm, 22 November 2022
Sweden is facing the greatest foreign, security and defence policy challenges of modern times. For this reason, Sweden’s security policy activities must be coordinated and its crisis management organised so they reflect today’s complex threat and risk landscape. The Government therefore intends to establish a national security council at the Prime Minister’s Office.
Today the Government will appoint a national security adviser, who will initially be tasked with presenting proposals on how to set up a function at the Prime Minister’s Office for the coordination, focus and analysis of national security issues. The national security adviser will consider the organisational structure and expertise necessary to accomplish the task in the most effective manner.
The Government appoints Henrik Landerholm as National Security Adviser.
“The entire Government and I are very pleased that Henrik Landerholm has accepted the position as Sweden’s first National Security Adviser. We are now living in a time where many different threats may be targeted at Sweden. This places greater demands on our overall ability to analyse and coordinate measures to counter national security threats,” says Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
Mr Landerholm is currently the Director General of the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency. He began his career in the army in 1983 and is currently a Lieutenant Colonel in the reserves. He has previously served as a member of the Riksdag, where he was chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and member of the Defence Commission. He has also been Vice-Chancellor and head of the Swedish Defence University, and Director-General of the Folke Bernadotte Academy.
Mr Landerholm served in the Swedish Foreign Service from 2011 until 2021. He was the head of all Swedish operations in northern Afghanistan for two years, and was subsequently Sweden’s Ambassador to Latvia and the United Arab Emirates, respectively. He has been a Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences and the Royal Swedish Society of Naval Sciences since 1999.
Source – EU Commission