KOMAR - Total Defence as a part of National Resilience 2024-2028

Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine and the resulting security threats and challenges have highlighted the importance of total defence as part of national resilience. Significant changes in Finland's security environment increase the need to review, develop, and research total defence.

The primary goal of the Total Defence as Part of National Resilience (KOMAR) research project is to advance research related to total defence, renew its knowledge base, strengthen national and international research networks, and establish a permanent foundation for the field of total defence research.

KOMAR is a five-year research project (2024-2028) conducted at the Finnish National Defence University. The project examines total defence through various phenomena and threats, with the most important being societal resilience and broad-spectrum influence.

At the core of the research are defence capability and interagency cooperation from the perspective of comprehensive national defence. Key areas include military defence, interagency cooperation, situational awareness, and preparedness planning. Our research focus is currently on voluntary national defence as a pillar of total defence in crisis and wartime conditions.  

Total defence and comprehensive security, as well as their research, are built through networks. In the KOMAR research project, the study of total defence is connected to an international framework, where the most important actors are NATO and the European Union. Bilateral cooperation with Sweden is particularly important. Additionally, the project actively builds a research network with other Nordic and Baltic countries. In the face of global challenges, both domestic and international cooperation are key.

Research collaboration:

Safe Water for All  (WaterFall) 

The Safe Water for All (2024-2030) research project is funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC), which operates in connection with the Academy of Finland. It focuses on improving water safety and the resilience of water supply system from the raw water source to the consumer. The aim of the project is to strengthen preparedness and ability of water utilities to foresee changes, and thus make long-term proactive decisions to secure the production and supply of household water in a changing operating environment.

The participants in the Safe Water for All project are the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, the Finnish Environment Institute, the University of Oulu, the University of Lapland, the National Defence University and Demos Helsinki. 
 
The KOMAR project contributes by adding perspectives and knowledge on comprehensive security, total defence, resilience, and hybrid threats. The NDU’s expertise complements the consortium’s work by adding insights on analyzing different types of threat scenarios and developing preventive solutions to safeguard drinking water during emergency conditions. 

Spontaneous Volunteering in National Defense (SPOVA) , University of Vaasa

University of Vaasa’s SPOVA project aims to map the current state of spontaneous volunteer activity related to national defense in Europe, and create, based on this mapping, an operational model suitable for the Finnish national defense context to utilize spontaneous volunteerism in wartime. The results of the research can be directly utilized in Finnish readiness planning and preparedness, for example in the planning and execution of local defense exercises.  

The KOMAR project is involved in the research activities of the SPOVA project, and in autumn 2025 data will be collected during three local defence exercises. 

European Total Defence – Past, Present and Future (book)

The launch event of the book European Total Defence – Past, Present and Future took place at NATO Headquarters on 2 April 2025. In connection with the event, a separate audience was arranged with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. The event was attended by an adjunct professor Teija Sederholm from the KOMAR-project, who is an author alongside with Rasmus Rannikko and Mikael Salo of the book chapter Total Defence Model at the Heart of Finland’s National Defence and Resilience.

Publications:

Teija Sederholm (2025). Volunteering contributes to building a resilient Finland (In Finnish). MustRead 8/25. 

Teija Sederholm, Rasmus Rannikko, Mikael Salo (2025). Total Defence Model at the Heart of Finland’s National Defence and Resilience. An article in the book European Total Defence: Past, Present and Future.

Silvia Sommarberg & Maro Ketola (2025). Water as an instrument of broad spectrum influencing  (in Finnish). Vesitalous-lehti 2/25.  

Maro Ketola & Silvia Sommarberg (2025). What would the environmental destruction seen in Ukraine look like if it occurred in Finland?  (In Finnish). Ruotuväki 1/25

Silvia Sommarberg & Maro Ketola (2024). ECOCIDE as an instrument of Russian’s broad spectrum influencing. (In Finnish). Suomen Sotilas 6/24. 

Silvia Sommarberg & Maro Ketola (2024). ECOCIDE as an instrument of Russian’s broad spectrum influencing (In Finnish). Sotilasaikakausilehti 4/24.