"Catastrophic" and "Completely incomprehensible". Several Danish researchers in emergency preparedness and societal security are sparing no expense when it comes to putting into words the – according to them – inadequate investments and interests in their field of research. This is reported by Videnskab.dk.
The research field covers everything from how we can protect ourselves against cyberattacks, floods and natural disasters to network breakdowns and sabotage.
And this is at a time when the threat picture against Denmark is "more serious than in many years", as the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (FE) has recently concluded. A time that, in the words of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, can no longer be called "a time of peace".
- It doesn't make sense, says Associate Professor Rasmus Dahlberg, who has been at the head of the Danish Defence Academy's Centre for Societal Security since 2023, to Videnskab.dk.
- Politicians and authorities point to, in my opinion, very real threats to Danish society from opponents who use sabotage and hybrid means. At the same time, no money is being given to research that can equip us against the threats.
Rasmus Dahlberg is on leave from the Danish Defence Academy until the summer of 2025, but is following the debate about hybrid threats and societal security closely.
Do researchers just want more money?
But don't you researchers always want more money for your own research?
- I'll probably manage as a researcher. I am driven by my indignation as a citizen of Denmark, because I and my family and my acquaintances also depend on us having a robust society in the future, when we have a rapidly deteriorating security situation, says Rasmus Dahlberg.
And he receives support in his criticism from several researchers from the same research field that Videnskab.dk has spoken to. One of them is Nina Blom Andersen, an associate professor at the Disaster and Risk Management Program at Copenhagen University College:
- It is completely incomprehensible when we look at how things are going in the other Nordic countries that we otherwise compare ourselves to, says Nina Blom Andersen, who has been researching crisis management for 20 years.
- This applies to everything from how we best involve and inform citizens if they have to handle a cloudburst themselves, to how we act when TDC experiences a mobile outage, Banedanmark has signal failures, or a kindergarten is flooded, says Nina Blom Andersen.
Jurassic Monsters and Cyberwar
Per Andersen is a law professor at the University of Southern Denmark, where he is currently developing a master's degree program in emergency law and public safety. And he joins the chorus of critics:
- I think it is starting to approach a catastrophic level, says Per Andersen to Videnskab.dk and explains that there is no overview of the various laws and regulations that could collide if we find ourselves in a crisis situation.
If, for example, the power goes out in the whole of Djursland as a result of a cyber attack, the problem will suddenly awaken a multi-headed legal monster and involve laws within IT security, energy, emergency preparedness and the private companies that provide the electricity.
- So who has the duty, responsibility and right to act? And who should compensate for the damages? We don't have control over that, and that's what a legal overview should help with, says Per Andersen.
- We are more busy buying pontoons for coastal protection than actually tackling the problem in a structured way, he says.
Minister of Emergency Situations: Need for more knowledge
Videnskab.dk has held the criticism against Minister of Emergency Situations Torsten Schack Pedersen. In a written response, he states:
"There is a need to analyze and gain more knowledge in a number of areas in order to strengthen the area of societal security and preparedness in the longer term. And we need to have an updated overview of society's vulnerabilities.'"
"This is something that I have a great deal of focus on, and for which there is support in the preparedness agreement," Torsten Schack Pedersen writes in an email.
Here he also explains that the preparedness agreement takes "important steps towards an overall stronger preparedness in Denmark by, among other things, addressing acute needs in the Emergency Management Agency."
"This is the foundation for further work. I therefore also look forward to the government setting up a commission for societal security and preparedness in 2025. Because we are not finished yet," he concludes.
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