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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Elisabeth Braw

Weapons are one thing, but if war breaks out, Europe’s best resource is its people

A soldier applies green camouflage face paint to another soldier wearing military gear and a Polish flag patch
Volunteers in Poland's army learn to apply camouflage face paint during basic training in Nowogrod, Poland, June 2024. Photograph: Czarek Sokołowski/AP

Wars, these days, target digital infrastructure as well as military installations. The very fact that large chunks of daily life can be knocked out without a single shot being fired is the reason Russia seems interested in doing exactly that. It is, for example, already dangerously interfering with aviation and shipping around the Baltic Sea.

Imagine the impact of larger, more successful cyber-attacks on our modern lives. Ordinary citizens would have to survive without texting, banking apps, public transportation and most modern office work. The government, though, would need to keep operating. In an offline world, the logistics of running a country would require many people. Some of these people, Sweden suggests, could ride motorcycles.

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