Book Reviews : Ingemar Dörfer: System 37 Viggen: Arms, Technology and the Domestication of Glory, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo-Bergen-Tromsø 1973. 258 pp
| Author | Finn Lied |
| DOI | 10.1177/001083677400900133 |
| Published date | 01 March 1974 |
| Date | 01 March 1974 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
319
the
defense
effort
and
argues
for
a
Swedish
militia
type
defense,
if
necessary
at
the
ex-
pense
of
advanced
weapons
systems.
Obviously
one
of
the
two
is
wrong
because
it
is
not
very
likely
that
a
war
involving
Denmark
would
not
also
involve
Sweden
or
(even
less
likely)
vice
versa.
Iceland,
whose
importance
in
Nordic
se-
curity
has
increased
with
the
expansion
of
the
Soviet
Navy
and
the
importance
of
Ame-
rican
and
Canadian
linkage
for
Norwegian
security,
gets
its
due
by
Bjorn
Bjarnason.
The
recent
Icelandic
overtures
on
the
base
question
keep
the
Icelandic
problem
on
the
front
bur-
ner.
85
pages
of
documentation,
including
an
exhaustive
bibliography,
further
enhances
the
value
of
this
book
that
one
would
expect
to
f ind
by
the
bedside
of
any
person
seriously
interested
in
the
problems
of
Nordic
security.
FINN
LIED
Ingemar
Dörfer:
System
37
Viggen:
Arms,
Technology
and
the
Domestication
of
Glory,
Universitetsforlaget,
Oslo-Bergen-Tromsø
1973.
258
pp.
In
his
Godkin
Lectures
at
Harvard
University
in
1960,
C.
P.
Snow
drew
attention,
with
customary
clarity
and
in
his
characteristically
literary
style,
to
the
vitally
important
choices
which
are
made
by
a
handful
of
men
in
secrecy
and
without
the
consequences
being
fully
surveyed.
He
had
in
mind,
among
other
things,
decisions
relating
to
arms
development.
In
the
following
years
the
discussion
of
deci-
sion-making
processes
became
a
central
theme
among
politicians
and
academics
concerned
with
security
and
research
policy.
On
the
whole,
examples
were
taken
from
the
USA
or
Great
Britain.
The
small
countries
can
contribute
few
ex-
amples
with
which
to
illustrate
the
problem.
There
is,
however,
one
exception:
System
37-
Viggen.
This
is
an
exception
because
it
is
a
family
of
aircraft,
a
project
which
is
large
in
international
terms
and
enormous
in
the
Swedish
context.
For
a
decade
it
absorbed
about
10 °/o
of
all
Swedish
research
and
devel-
opment
capacity.
Obviously,
such
a
project
must
have
been
difficult
to
get
started
and
even
more
difficult
to
carry
through.
The
author
of the
book,
Ingemar
D6rfcr,
belongs
to
the
younger
generation
of
Swedish
researchers.
He
chose
the
project
as
the
sub-
ject
of
his
doctorate
at
Harvard,
and
it
speaks
for
the
mobility
of
younger
researchers
that
the
dissertation,
after
some
revisions,
has
now
been
published
by
the
University
Press
in
Oslo.
The
book
is
a
confirmation
that
Sweden
is
a
progressive
and
enlightened
country.
As
the
author
says,
it is
rather
unlikely
that
such
an
investigation
could
have been
carried
out
else-
where
in
Europe.
The
author
received
useful
and
willing
assistance
from
most
of
the
leading
personalities
involved
in
the
project:
State
Secretary
Olhede;
Director
Lars
Brising,
who
shuttled
back
and
forth
between
the
various
levels
on
which
the
decisions
were
taken;
and
Mileikowsky,
managing
director
of
SAAB,
the
company
responsible
for
development
and
production.
But
most
credit
should
perhaps
go
to
the
contribution
of
the
present
General
Dahlberg.
Dahlberg
was
a
highly
gifted
man
and
a
central
personality
at
the
second
level
-
not
the
least
important
level
in
this
par-
ticular
case.
In
his
book
Dr.
D6rfer
utilizes
the
whole
conceptual
apparatus
which
has
been
devel-
oped
in
the
USA
in
connection
with
the
formu-
lation
of
research
and
development
policy -
and
with
it
all
the
jargon.
For
those
who
feel
familiar
with
Swedish
politics,
this
does
not
always
appear
appropriate.
Sweden
and
Swed-
ish
politics
are
forced
into
a
framework
which
seems
alien.
But
the
author
understands
clear-
ly
that
in
Sweden
(as
in
the
Nordic
countries,
generally)
there
is
a
movement
towards
con-
sensus
on
defence
matters,
towards,
that
is,
the
search
for
broad
national
unity
in
a
society
where
pragmatic
socialism
co-exists
peacefully
with
modem
capitalism.
In
this respect
the
Nordic
countries
are
unique.
But
in
one
par-
ticular
respect
Sweden
differs
from
the
other
Nordic
countries.
Development
and
produc-
tion
for
military
purposes
are
considered
not
only
in
relation
to
security
policy,
but
equally
to
industrial
policy.
This
has
been
the
case
for
over
a
century,
and
the
author
has
grasped
the
point
clearly.
He
is
evidently
impressed
by
Swedish
thoroughness,
Swedish
planning
and
Swedish
vision.
And
with
good
reason.
In
the
main,
the
book
gives
a
perhaps
some-
what
disorderly
historical
account
of
System
37’s
development
from
the
beginning
right
back
in
1952,
when
development
really
got
under
way.
The
first
prototype
flew
in
1967,
and
today
squadrons
of
fighter-bombers
are
coming
off
the
production
line
while
the
in-
terceptor
version
is
under
development.
A
recapitulation
of
the
historical
development,
with
all
its
crises,
will
not
be
given
here.
The
account
places
the
main
emphasis
on
what
really
happened
among
the
politicians,
within
the
ministry,
the
defence
staff
and
in
SAAB.
For
they
were
all
politicians.
Had
an
engineer
written
this
book,
the
technical
problems
and
achievements
would
have
come
more
into
focus.
That
would
have
given
a
perhaps
more
interesting
picture,
a
picture
of
those
who
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