1. Viewing the “Green Transition” through a WPS Lens
Women, Peace and Security (WPS) has long emphasized both the protection of women in conflict and their participation in peacebuilding and decision-making. In recent years, discussions have increasingly extended to broader issues affecting people’s everyday security, including climate change, environmental degradation, and competition over natural resources. Climate change threatens the foundations of daily life, including access to food and water, health, and livelihoods. It can also deepen existing social inequalities and create new security challenges.
At the same time, decarbonization efforts undertaken in response to the climate crisis are increasingly discussed as part of a broader transformation of economies and societies centered on renewable energy and electrification known as the “green transition.” Combined with accelerating digitalization, this trend has driven growing demand for critical minerals and heightened concern over how to secure stable supplies. Sourcing these minerals has thus become an increasingly important security issue, extending beyond military and economic concerns to environmental and social dimensions as well.
In our research group, we understand Women, Peace and Security (WPS) not simply as the protection of women in times of conflict, but as a framework for re-examining security through a gender lens. This perspective asks whose livelihoods, well-being, and ways of life are threatened, and whose voices are reflected in decision-making.
From this perspective, this commentary focuses on the relationship between two dimensions of security. One is resource security, understood as securing a stable supply of critical raw materials. The other is everyday security, understood as people’s ability to sustain their livelihoods, well-being, and ways of life. How are the benefits and burdens of resource development distributed? To what extent are the voices of affected communities, particularly Indigenous Sámi communities, reflected in decision-making? This commentary explores these questions through the case of Kiruna in Arctic Sweden, where the impacts of climate change are already pronounced.
2. Kiruna on the Front Line of Resource Security
Securing a stable supply of critical minerals has become an increasingly important policy priority for countries seeking to advance decarbonization while strengthening economic security. This concern is especially pronounced in the European Union, where demand is growing as a result of the energy transition and digitalization, while heavy dependence on external suppliers has come to be seen as a source of vulnerability. Disruptions to global supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since 2022 have further heightened this concern. Critical minerals are now regarded not only as essential to climate policy, but also as resources underpinning industrial capacity and security.
The EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), which entered into force in 2024, gives concrete form to this policy direction. For strategic raw materials, the Act sets benchmarks for 2030 under which at least 10 percent of the EU’s annual consumption should be extracted within the EU, 40 percent processed within the EU, and 25 percent supplied through recycling. It also provides for the designation of “strategic projects” that make a significant contribution to security of supply and allows for accelerated permitting procedures. At the same time, such projects are expected to minimize environmental impacts, respect human rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples, and ensure meaningful engagement with local communities.
Kiruna in northern Sweden has attracted particular attention in this context. Iron ore mining by the state-owned company LKAB has continued in Kiruna since the late nineteenth century, and the transition to underground mining was decided in 1952. The Swedish state acquired ownership of LKAB in 1957 and became its sole owner in 1976. Today, the Kiruna mine is widely recognized as the world’s largest underground iron ore mine. Its ore body extends approximately four kilometers in length, is 80–120 meters thick, and reaches a depth of around two kilometers.
In 2023, LKAB announced the discovery of a major rare-earth deposit at Per Geijer, near Kiruna. Meanwhile, Talga has been pursuing graphite mining development near Vittangi, in the wider Kiruna region. In March 2025, LKAB’s ReeMAP project and Talga’s Natural Graphite ONE project were included in the first round of strategic projects designated under the CRMA. Kiruna and its surrounding region have thus come to be seen not only as a long-standing center of iron ore production, but increasingly as an important region expected to support Europe’s green transition and resource security through the supply of critical raw materials.
3. Urban Relocation: Resource Development and the Reshaping of Everyday Life
How, then, has resource development in Kiruna intersected with the lives of local communities? As underground mining has extended deeper, ground deformation has affected the urban area, leading to the large-scale relocation of parts of the city since the 2000s. In contrast to the greener old town that had developed since the late nineteenth century, the new Kiruna has adopted a more compact urban form. At the same time, efforts have been made to preserve some buildings of cultural and historical importance by physically relocating them.
The most symbolic example was the relocation of Kiruna Church in August 2025. Completed in 1912, the wooden church had long served as an important repository of local memory. King Carl XVI Gustaf visited Kiruna on the day of the relocation to witness the historic move.
Only a week later, however, LKAB announced a new forecast of ground deformation, indicating that approximately another 6,000 residents and 2,700 homes could be affected by relocation. This brought the total number of residents affected by the urban transformation to approximately 12,000, equivalent to about two-thirds of Kiruna’s central urban population. A process that had appeared to be approaching its conclusion suddenly became uncertain once again. Representatives of Kiruna Municipality have also expressed the view that urban transformation on this scale cannot be borne by the municipality alone and requires involvement at the national level.
How do residents themselves perceive the relocation? During our fieldwork, some residents expressed appreciation for the convenience of the new town and for the compensation provided. Others, particularly those who had lived in Kiruna for many years, across genders, spoke of the pain of losing not only their homes but also their connections to nature, neighbors, and the accumulated memories of a life lived in place. The impacts of relocation, and the ways in which they are experienced, vary significantly according to people’s living conditions, economic circumstances, and care needs.
4. Sámi Land Use and “Cumulative Impacts”
If urban relocation has reshaped places of residence and living environments, for the Indigenous Sámi people the pressures extend further, affecting not only livelihoods but also the continuity of everyday life and culture. Reindeer herding, historically central to Sámi livelihoods and ways of life, depends on seasonal movement across extensive northern landscapes and access to suitable grazing areas at different times of the year. Its continuation therefore requires not only access to land itself but also the ability to maintain routes connecting different grazing areas. Under Swedish law, reindeer-herding rights are recognized as rights rooted in long-standing use, distinct from formal land ownership.
Within the territory of Gabna sameby, the reindeer-herding community that includes Kiruna, pressures on the continuity of such land use have accumulated over many decades. Mining and associated environmental pollution have been followed by the expansion of railways and urban areas, while newer forms of land use, including tourism and wind power development, have added further pressures. Climate change has compounded these challenges by altering snow conditions and vegetation. As a result, traditional migration routes have shifted and narrowed. Previous research and a 2026 report by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) emphasize that these effects need to be understood not as isolated impacts of individual projects, but as “cumulative impacts” building up across both time and space.
The prospect of development at Per Geijer is regarded with particular concern because it would add yet another major development to land already under considerable pressure. The project is feared to sever the remaining corridor connecting grazing areas. If this corridor is lost, the viability of a reindeer-herding system that depends on seasonal migration would be seriously undermined. During our fieldwork, representatives of Gabna expressed a strong sense of crisis, warning that any further fragmentation could threaten the continuation of reindeer herding and, ultimately, the future of the sameby itself. We also heard that, even within existing grazing areas and migration routes, reindeer had stopped eating lichens in areas believed to be contaminated.
According to one Sámi woman, while men may spend long periods in the mountains or winter grazing areas, women often remain closer to home so that children can attend school. In addition to paid work, women may take on domestic responsibilities, childcare, handicrafts, and berry picking. She explained that they sometimes bring children with them into herding and other activities on the land, passing on place names and ways of relating to nature. Her remark that “you can’t learn how to be Sámi in school” points to the important role women may play in transmitting cultural knowledge from one generation to the next.
At the same time, the impacts of resource development also reach into these aspects of everyday life. She explained that although her family had once fished in a nearby lake, she no longer did so because of concerns about pollution. She expressed deep concern about whether her children would still be able to live as Sámi on this land in the future. The community has repeatedly adapted, including by changing migration routes, but she felt that the room for further adaptation was approaching its limits. If development at Per Geijer proceeds, she feared that they might no longer be able to preserve their identity and way of life as Sámi.
5. Do Sámi Voices Reach Decision-Making? The Asymmetry of Consultation and Participation
How, then, are these burdens and concerns about the future conveyed into decision-making? The history of environmental permitting for the Kiruna mine illustrates some of the difficulties involved. The permit underlying current operations was assessed in 1976 and its conditions were revised in 1998. It therefore rests on a regulatory framework predating Sweden’s current Environmental Code, which entered into force in 1999. LKAB applied for a new environmental permit in 2018, but the court dismissed the application, citing, among other issues, inadequate prior consultation with people likely to be affected. LKAB continues to operate under the existing permit while preparing a new application.
Consultation between affected reindeer-herding communities, companies, and public authorities has long taken place in relation to land use and environmental permitting. Separately, a new statutory consultation system was introduced in 2022 with the aim of strengthening Sámi influence over decisions that affect them. This expanded the institutional opportunities for participation. Yet SEI’s 2026 assessment identified cases in which consultation began only after important options had already narrowed, as well as situations in which Sámi participants themselves had to explain the purpose of the consultation system to public authorities. Having opportunities for consultation and having one’s voice actually shape decisions are not necessarily the same thing.
What becomes visible here is an asymmetry in the conditions that make participation possible. Companies and public authorities have dedicated staff and access to experts. Reindeer-herding communities, by contrast, must respond to one development proposal after another while continuing their herding activities. The burden extends beyond attending meetings to reviewing documents, coordinating within the community, and securing specialist advice, all with limited human resources. If those affected must continually prove the impacts they experience while also bearing the costs in time and expertise required to do so, a profound asymmetry remains embedded in the conditions of participation itself.
6. “Whose Security?”—From Historical Injustice to WPS
These questions have recently been placed within a much longer historical perspective by Sweden’s Truth Commission for the Sámi People, established by the government in 2021. Its final report, Markerna berättar och minns. Konsekvenser för samer av svensk politik (The Lands Tell Their Stories and Remember: Consequences of Swedish Policies for the Sámi), published on 30 September 2026, examined Swedish state policies and their consequences over time, framing the present-day situation of Sámi rights and society as part of an ongoing historical process. The Commission called on the government to formally acknowledge historical injustices and take measures toward redress, the restoration of Sámi rights and dignity, and reconciliation. The report was formally submitted to the Swedish government, the Sámi Parliament, and Sáminuorra.
The report makes clear that the reduction of land available for Sámi use and the difficulties facing reindeer herding are not simply matters of the past, but continue into the present. Testimonies collected by the Commission describe the shrinking of grazing lands, pessimism among many reindeer herders about the future, and the close connection between the survival of reindeer herding and the continuity of Sámi culture. The pressures on land use, the burden of consultation, and the asymmetries in decision-making that emerged from our own fieldwork resonate with these broader findings. The report thus invites current resource development to be understood not only through the lens of recent mineral policy, but also against the much longer history of state policy concerning land and self-determination.
Against this historical background, the next question is how far current institutions are capable of correcting these imbalances. Sweden has not ratified ILO Convention No. 169, one of the principal international standards concerning Indigenous peoples’ rights to land and resources and their participation in decisions that affect them. Even where domestic consultation mechanisms have been strengthened, questions remain as to how far Sámi rights are actually reflected in decisions over land and resource use.
From a WPS perspective, what is at stake here is the substance of participation. Opportunities to attend meetings are not sufficient if the burden of proving impacts, assembling expert knowledge, and participating continuously in consultation falls disproportionately on those who are already affected. What is defined as security, and on whose burdens is that security built? Kiruna brings this question into sharp relief.
For the EU, securing critical minerals contributes to the green transition as well as to resource and economic security. For local communities, by contrast, security is bound up with the continuity of land, livelihoods, everyday life, and the possibility of passing these on to future generations. Resource security may promise greater supply stability, employment, and economic opportunities for the region, but the benefits and burdens do not necessarily fall in the same places or on the same people. A policy that strengthens one form of security may simultaneously generate new forms of insecurity for others. As the need for a green transition becomes more urgent, so too do questions about the distribution of its benefits and burdens, the protection of rights, and meaningful participation in decision-making. WPS provides a lens through which to examine whose security is placed at the center of policy and whose insecurity remains in its shadow.
The final report of the Truth Commission was submitted shortly after Sweden’s general election in September 2026, at a time when negotiations to form a new government were still under way. Since 2022, Sweden had been governed by a Moderate-led right-of-center government supported in parliament by the Sweden Democrats. In the 2026 election, however, these four cooperating parties lost their parliamentary majority. The Social Democrats emerged as the largest party with 99 seats, and as of early October negotiations over the formation of a new government were continuing.
Sweden is widely regarded as one of the world’s more mature democracies. The question now is how far it can translate the historical injustices identified by the Truth Commission into present-day land and resource policy and stronger protection of Sámi rights. At a time when the composition and policy direction of the next government may change, the response to the Commission’s recommendations will be one test of the substance of Swedish democracy. As the EU continues to advance its resource security agenda, what follows in Sweden will warrant close attention.
1. Viewing the “Green Transition” through a WPS Lens
Women, Peace and Security (WPS) has long emphasized both the protection of women in conflict and their participation in peacebuilding and decision-making. In recent years, discussions have increasingly extended to broader issues affecting people’s everyday security, including climate change, environmental degradation, and competition over natural resources. Climate change threatens the foundations of daily life, including access to food and water, health, and livelihoods. It can also deepen existing social inequalities and create new security challenges.
At the same time, decarbonization efforts undertaken in response to the climate crisis are increasingly discussed as part of a broader transformation of economies and societies centered on renewable energy and electrification known as the “green transition.” Combined with accelerating digitalization, this trend has driven growing demand for critical minerals and heightened concern over how to secure stable supplies. Sourcing these minerals has thus become an increasingly important security issue, extending beyond military and economic concerns to environmental and social dimensions as well.
In our research group, we understand Women, Peace and Security (WPS) not simply as the protection of women in times of conflict, but as a framework for re-examining security through a gender lens. This perspective asks whose livelihoods, well-being, and ways of life are threatened, and whose voices are reflected in decision-making.
From this perspective, this commentary focuses on the relationship between two dimensions of security. One is resource security, understood as securing a stable supply of critical raw materials. The other is everyday security, understood as people’s ability to sustain their livelihoods, well-being, and ways of life. How are the benefits and burdens of resource development distributed? To what extent are the voices of affected communities, particularly Indigenous Sámi communities, reflected in decision-making? This commentary explores these questions through the case of Kiruna in Arctic Sweden, where the impacts of climate change are already pronounced.
2. Kiruna on the Front Line of Resource Security
Securing a stable supply of critical minerals has become an increasingly important policy priority for countries seeking to advance decarbonization while strengthening economic security. This concern is especially pronounced in the European Union, where demand is growing as a result of the energy transition and digitalization, while heavy dependence on external suppliers has come to be seen as a source of vulnerability. Disruptions to global supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since 2022 have further heightened this concern. Critical minerals are now regarded not only as essential to climate policy, but also as resources underpinning industrial capacity and security.
The EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), which entered into force in 2024, gives concrete form to this policy direction. For strategic raw materials, the Act sets benchmarks for 2030 under which at least 10 percent of the EU’s annual consumption should be extracted within the EU, 40 percent processed within the EU, and 25 percent supplied through recycling. It also provides for the designation of “strategic projects” that make a significant contribution to security of supply and allows for accelerated permitting procedures. At the same time, such projects are expected to minimize environmental impacts, respect human rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples, and ensure meaningful engagement with local communities.
Kiruna in northern Sweden has attracted particular attention in this context. Iron ore mining by the state-owned company LKAB has continued in Kiruna since the late nineteenth century, and the transition to underground mining was decided in 1952. The Swedish state acquired ownership of LKAB in 1957 and became its sole owner in 1976. Today, the Kiruna mine is widely recognized as the world’s largest underground iron ore mine. Its ore body extends approximately four kilometers in length, is 80–120 meters thick, and reaches a depth of around two kilometers.
In 2023, LKAB announced the discovery of a major rare-earth deposit at Per Geijer, near Kiruna. Meanwhile, Talga has been pursuing graphite mining development near Vittangi, in the wider Kiruna region. In March 2025, LKAB’s ReeMAP project and Talga’s Natural Graphite ONE project were included in the first round of strategic projects designated under the CRMA. Kiruna and its surrounding region have thus come to be seen not only as a long-standing center of iron ore production, but increasingly as an important region expected to support Europe’s green transition and resource security through the supply of critical raw materials.
3. Urban Relocation: Resource Development and the Reshaping of Everyday Life
How, then, has resource development in Kiruna intersected with the lives of local communities? As underground mining has extended deeper, ground deformation has affected the urban area, leading to the large-scale relocation of parts of the city since the 2000s. In contrast to the greener old town that had developed since the late nineteenth century, the new Kiruna has adopted a more compact urban form. At the same time, efforts have been made to preserve some buildings of cultural and historical importance by physically relocating them.
The most symbolic example was the relocation of Kiruna Church in August 2025. Completed in 1912, the wooden church had long served as an important repository of local memory. King Carl XVI Gustaf visited Kiruna on the day of the relocation to witness the historic move.
Only a week later, however, LKAB announced a new forecast of ground deformation, indicating that approximately another 6,000 residents and 2,700 homes could be affected by relocation. This brought the total number of residents affected by the urban transformation to approximately 12,000, equivalent to about two-thirds of Kiruna’s central urban population. A process that had appeared to be approaching its conclusion suddenly became uncertain once again. Representatives of Kiruna Municipality have also expressed the view that urban transformation on this scale cannot be borne by the municipality alone and requires involvement at the national level.
How do residents themselves perceive the relocation? During our fieldwork, some residents expressed appreciation for the convenience of the new town and for the compensation provided. Others, particularly those who had lived in Kiruna for many years, across genders, spoke of the pain of losing not only their homes but also their connections to nature, neighbors, and the accumulated memories of a life lived in place. The impacts of relocation, and the ways in which they are experienced, vary significantly according to people’s living conditions, economic circumstances, and care needs.
4. Sámi Land Use and “Cumulative Impacts”
If urban relocation has reshaped places of residence and living environments, for the Indigenous Sámi people the pressures extend further, affecting not only livelihoods but also the continuity of everyday life and culture. Reindeer herding, historically central to Sámi livelihoods and ways of life, depends on seasonal movement across extensive northern landscapes and access to suitable grazing areas at different times of the year. Its continuation therefore requires not only access to land itself but also the ability to maintain routes connecting different grazing areas. Under Swedish law, reindeer-herding rights are recognized as rights rooted in long-standing use, distinct from formal land ownership.
Within the territory of Gabna sameby, the reindeer-herding community that includes Kiruna, pressures on the continuity of such land use have accumulated over many decades. Mining and associated environmental pollution have been followed by the expansion of railways and urban areas, while newer forms of land use, including tourism and wind power development, have added further pressures. Climate change has compounded these challenges by altering snow conditions and vegetation. As a result, traditional migration routes have shifted and narrowed. Previous research and a 2026 report by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) emphasize that these effects need to be understood not as isolated impacts of individual projects, but as “cumulative impacts” building up across both time and space.
The prospect of development at Per Geijer is regarded with particular concern because it would add yet another major development to land already under considerable pressure. The project is feared to sever the remaining corridor connecting grazing areas. If this corridor is lost, the viability of a reindeer-herding system that depends on seasonal migration would be seriously undermined. During our fieldwork, representatives of Gabna expressed a strong sense of crisis, warning that any further fragmentation could threaten the continuation of reindeer herding and, ultimately, the future of the sameby itself. We also heard that, even within existing grazing areas and migration routes, reindeer had stopped eating lichens in areas believed to be contaminated.
According to one Sámi woman, while men may spend long periods in the mountains or winter grazing areas, women often remain closer to home so that children can attend school. In addition to paid work, women may take on domestic responsibilities, childcare, handicrafts, and berry picking. She explained that they sometimes bring children with them into herding and other activities on the land, passing on place names and ways of relating to nature. Her remark that “you can’t learn how to be Sámi in school” points to the important role women may play in transmitting cultural knowledge from one generation to the next.
At the same time, the impacts of resource development also reach into these aspects of everyday life. She explained that although her family had once fished in a nearby lake, she no longer did so because of concerns about pollution. She expressed deep concern about whether her children would still be able to live as Sámi on this land in the future. The community has repeatedly adapted, including by changing migration routes, but she felt that the room for further adaptation was approaching its limits. If development at Per Geijer proceeds, she feared that they might no longer be able to preserve their identity and way of life as Sámi.
5. Do Sámi Voices Reach Decision-Making? The Asymmetry of Consultation and Participation
How, then, are these burdens and concerns about the future conveyed into decision-making? The history of environmental permitting for the Kiruna mine illustrates some of the difficulties involved. The permit underlying current operations was assessed in 1976 and its conditions were revised in 1998. It therefore rests on a regulatory framework predating Sweden’s current Environmental Code, which entered into force in 1999. LKAB applied for a new environmental permit in 2018, but the court dismissed the application, citing, among other issues, inadequate prior consultation with people likely to be affected. LKAB continues to operate under the existing permit while preparing a new application.
Consultation between affected reindeer-herding communities, companies, and public authorities has long taken place in relation to land use and environmental permitting. Separately, a new statutory consultation system was introduced in 2022 with the aim of strengthening Sámi influence over decisions that affect them. This expanded the institutional opportunities for participation. Yet SEI’s 2026 assessment identified cases in which consultation began only after important options had already narrowed, as well as situations in which Sámi participants themselves had to explain the purpose of the consultation system to public authorities. Having opportunities for consultation and having one’s voice actually shape decisions are not necessarily the same thing.
What becomes visible here is an asymmetry in the conditions that make participation possible. Companies and public authorities have dedicated staff and access to experts. Reindeer-herding communities, by contrast, must respond to one development proposal after another while continuing their herding activities. The burden extends beyond attending meetings to reviewing documents, coordinating within the community, and securing specialist advice, all with limited human resources. If those affected must continually prove the impacts they experience while also bearing the costs in time and expertise required to do so, a profound asymmetry remains embedded in the conditions of participation itself.
6. “Whose Security?”—From Historical Injustice to WPS
These questions have recently been placed within a much longer historical perspective by Sweden’s Truth Commission for the Sámi People, established by the government in 2021. Its final report, Markerna berättar och minns. Konsekvenser för samer av svensk politik (The Lands Tell Their Stories and Remember: Consequences of Swedish Policies for the Sámi), published on 30 September 2026, examined Swedish state policies and their consequences over time, framing the present-day situation of Sámi rights and society as part of an ongoing historical process. The Commission called on the government to formally acknowledge historical injustices and take measures toward redress, the restoration of Sámi rights and dignity, and reconciliation. The report was formally submitted to the Swedish government, the Sámi Parliament, and Sáminuorra.
The report makes clear that the reduction of land available for Sámi use and the difficulties facing reindeer herding are not simply matters of the past, but continue into the present. Testimonies collected by the Commission describe the shrinking of grazing lands, pessimism among many reindeer herders about the future, and the close connection between the survival of reindeer herding and the continuity of Sámi culture. The pressures on land use, the burden of consultation, and the asymmetries in decision-making that emerged from our own fieldwork resonate with these broader findings. The report thus invites current resource development to be understood not only through the lens of recent mineral policy, but also against the much longer history of state policy concerning land and self-determination.
Against this historical background, the next question is how far current institutions are capable of correcting these imbalances. Sweden has not ratified ILO Convention No. 169, one of the principal international standards concerning Indigenous peoples’ rights to land and resources and their participation in decisions that affect them. Even where domestic consultation mechanisms have been strengthened, questions remain as to how far Sámi rights are actually reflected in decisions over land and resource use.
From a WPS perspective, what is at stake here is the substance of participation. Opportunities to attend meetings are not sufficient if the burden of proving impacts, assembling expert knowledge, and participating continuously in consultation falls disproportionately on those who are already affected. What is defined as security, and on whose burdens is that security built? Kiruna brings this question into sharp relief.
For the EU, securing critical minerals contributes to the green transition as well as to resource and economic security. For local communities, by contrast, security is bound up with the continuity of land, livelihoods, everyday life, and the possibility of passing these on to future generations. Resource security may promise greater supply stability, employment, and economic opportunities for the region, but the benefits and burdens do not necessarily fall in the same places or on the same people. A policy that strengthens one form of security may simultaneously generate new forms of insecurity for others. As the need for a green transition becomes more urgent, so too do questions about the distribution of its benefits and burdens, the protection of rights, and meaningful participation in decision-making. WPS provides a lens through which to examine whose security is placed at the center of policy and whose insecurity remains in its shadow.
The final report of the Truth Commission was submitted shortly after Sweden’s general election in September 2026, at a time when negotiations to form a new government were still under way. Since 2022, Sweden had been governed by a Moderate-led right-of-center government supported in parliament by the Sweden Democrats. In the 2026 election, however, these four cooperating parties lost their parliamentary majority. The Social Democrats emerged as the largest party with 99 seats, and as of early October negotiations over the formation of a new government were continuing.
Sweden is widely regarded as one of the world’s more mature democracies. The question now is how far it can translate the historical injustices identified by the Truth Commission into present-day land and resource policy and stronger protection of Sámi rights. At a time when the composition and policy direction of the next government may change, the response to the Commission’s recommendations will be one test of the substance of Swedish democracy. As the EU continues to advance its resource security agenda, what follows in Sweden will warrant close attention.