Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Joakim Paasikivi has become one of Sweden's best-known defence experts and has been a frequent contributor to the media.
He has spent most of his professional life in the Swedish Armed Forces, including serving abroad and working in the Military Intelligence and Security Service, MUST.
Today, he is a lecturer in military strategy at the Swedish Defence University in Stockholm and discusses everything from combat techniques to world trade and nuclear weapons.
However, his military career began with military service in neighbouring Finland.
Difference in setting
Already during his military service, he noticed a difference in the attitude towards the armed forces in Sweden and Finland. Among comrades in the neighboring country, they did not only talk about the life they themselves lived. There were also stories about older relatives' experiences in the Second World War.
"My grandfather died at the front in 1942. There was an immediacy to reality there," Paasikivi says.
Finland retained its defence
Unlike Sweden, Finland has maintained a large military and civil defence after the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Every year, 21,000 conscripts complete their training in Finland.
In Sweden, about 6000 conscripts will do their military service in 2024.
But the war in Ukraine has resulted in defence becoming a more prioritised issue. By 2030, the idea is to increase the number of conscripts per year to 10,000. A figure that is still some way from the 50,000 who were drafted annually during the Cold War.
Watch the entire Do you want to defend your country? on SVT Play.