The civil defence minister recently issued Swedes with the warning that “there could be war in Sweden”. The reactions were swift and loud: many people said they felt scared, others protested about the needlessly alarmist tone. The military commander-in-chief, who backed up the warning, was accused of being a warmonger. Deep down, most of us Swedes are still convinced that nothing bad can happen to us and that our neutrality, a synonym for our goodness, will protect us. Sweden formally applied to join Nato in 2022 and has been stuck in the US-led alliance’s waiting room first by the political...