– All special agencies have a tendency to swell if you do not limit them, says Billström in an interview in Dagens industri about his own book "I skarpt läge".
Devour people
The Council and its offices with up to 70 employees "devour" people from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense and from the authorities under them. It is a problem, according to Billström.
It also risks, he claims, leading to the government having worse knowledge before decisions on foreign and security policy, than if they had previously built on material directly from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces.
"Something I noticed during my time as Foreign Minister was that staff employed by NSR (National Security Council) often contacted the Ministry for Foreign Affairs' officials to try to understand their own tasks, which sometimes led to a certain astonishment among the latter", writes Billström in the book.
He adds that it is okay when an organization is being built up, but not in the long run.
Resigned hastily
Billström, who resigned hastily and unexpectedly in September last year after just over two years as Foreign Minister, believes that the introduction of the Security Council was a good idea.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson launched the project in the government declaration in 2022 and shortly thereafter the government announced that Kristersson's childhood friend Henrik Landerholm had been appointed as security advisor – without others being able to apply for the job. Landerholm was also given the task of proposing what functions the Council and the security advisor should have, how the organization should look and how many should work there. He proposed a review after one year.
Landerholm resigned earlier this year due to suspicions of crime – which he was recently acquitted of in the district court.
Become clearer
Billström believes that the advisor should be a politically appointed person and that the service and organization should be smaller than today's approximately 70 people. Narrower, sharper and with a clearer role, is his proposal. Otherwise, nothing of value is added and the Council remains nothing more than the discussion forum it is today, he claims.
He warns against building further on the model that the national security advisor has in the USA. It fits poorly into the Swedish administration and into how decisions are made here.
"All attempts in that direction are therefore risky and not to be recommended", he writes.
