The prospect of war has turned Europe into a continent of preppershttps://www.economist.com/europe/2025/03/27/the-prospect-of-war-has-turned-europe-into-a-continent-of-preppersOdemčeno:
In the run-up to Christmas, Swedes opening their mailboxes in hopes of greeting cards instead got a chilling reminder of the troubled times they live in. A 32-page brochure mailed by the authorities to the country’s 5m households urged citizens to consider how they would behave should Sweden come under attack. “In Case of Crisis or War” is full of practical advice, should an unspecified foe stage an invasion: how to stem severe bleeding (apply firm pressure on the wound), where to find reliable information (tune in to public radio rather than social media) and useful tips on nuclear fallout (radiation levels will fall drastically after a couple of days, apparently). Illustrations of forlorn-looking Swedes sitting in civil-defence shelters ram home the point that war is not something that happens only to other people. It could be you, one day. So what are you going to do about it?
The booklet’s purpose is not to frighten citizens, but to jolt them into preparation. A household equipped with basic items—whatever it takes to survive a few days without outside food, water, electricity, heating or Netflix—will be one less headache for local authorities to deal with in times of acute crisis. Such “prepping” used to be a pastime for libertarian types with cabins deep in the woods, a penchant for conspiracy theories and a shotgun under the pillow, not to mention ample piles of tinned goods. These days low-grade survivalism is considered a basic civic duty in Europe. Nordic and Baltic countries, with their harsh winters, proximity to Russia and somewhat dour temperaments, have unsurprisingly led the way. Now governments farther south are taking note. France is preparing its own doomsday booklet for release before the summer. On March 26th the European Commission issued a “preparedness strategy” aiming to make society more resilient to the shocks of war or other crises. It has formally recommended citizens should stockpile 72 hours’ worth of food, just in case.
But what to add to the larder? Every country that has issued guidelines has its own recommendations. The ever-organised Swiss offer a website that can generate a shopping list for aspiring survivalists, based on family size and dietary preferences. A few items recur across Europe. Households need at least two litres of water per person per day just for drinking, and more for cooking and hygiene. A family of four looking to survive a week, as Sweden recommends, should be storing the best part of 100 litres of water. Tinned food, which can be stored without refrigeration and eaten without cooking, is preferable to fiddly grub that requires preparation (wartime is apparently not the moment to attempt that fancy soufflé you have been contemplating). Credit cards are good to have on hand, but cash for a week’s worth of shopping and tanking up the car is also useful, should payment systems collapse. A battery-operated radio and flashlight, firewood to keep warm, first-aid kits, duct tape, phone chargers, spare spectacles, iodine tablets, toilet paper, buckets to collect water in, a copy of useful documents: the list goes on and on. Scandinavians can purchase much of what is needed in ready-made kits, or make their own.
Beyond prodding people to stockpile, state-sanctioned prepping is meant to get a complacent society in the right frame of mind should its circumstances take a sudden turn for the worse. Swedes think of it as part of the realm’s “total defence”, an unwitting homage to dull Italian football tactics. Finns speak of “comprehensive security”, and are more agnostic about the source of threats. A massive cyber-glitch might knock out electricity for days; a natural disaster could cut off the roads supermarkets use to keep shelves stocked. “Whether you are preparing for war or for another crisis, in practice the basic measures you take at the individual level are going to be mostly the same,” says Petteri Korvala, secretary-general of the Finnish Security Committee, which advises the population on preparedness. Such an “all-hazard” approach helps sell the idea to countries far from Russia, too. Covid-19 was a useful reminder that people’s lives can change suddenly.
Above all, authorities want to promote the idea that safeguarding the realm is not just the job of soldiers and police. Businesses, community groups and the wider public play a role in keeping society running, should it come under stress. Places made resilient by a little prepping are less likely to be tested: there is no point in a Russian ship “accidentally” severing a Baltic power cable if the population is well-equipped to deal with the consequences.
Even in the Nordics, citizens’ scout-like instinct to “Be Prepared!” fell into abeyance after the end of the cold war. (The Swedish pamphlet is an update of advice first proffered in 1943, discontinued in 1991 and then revived in 2018.) In the same way a peace dividend allowed governments to cut defence budgets, the public was able to stop thinking about what war might mean for them. No longer. Germany is among the places building lots of new shelters (they are still plentiful in places like Switzerland and Finland). Conscription is being considered across the continent. On March 7th Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, laid out plans for all men to get some form of military training.
A stitch in time
Getting Europeans mentally prepped for worse things to come carries a broader, more sobering message: there are limits to what the state can do for its citizens. Should crisis hit one day, a populace accustomed to being mollycoddled from cradle to grave might have to fend for itself, at least for a while.
Taking heed of the new mood, Charlemagne took a detour to the supermarket to get his family war-ready. A cupboard under the stairs now includes a stock of water next to the wine (also useful in case of lockdown). The larder now bulges with tinned beans. The first-aid kit has been refreshed. If that seems like overkill, remember what the Finns say: “You can only prepare in advance.”