Total Defence: A Comprehensive Approach to National Defence Governance

Defence policy, such as total defence (also known as comprehensive defence), are considered a matter of national priority and consensus in some states. Comprehensive defence, viewed as whole government and whole society approach to national defence, plays a critical role in national defence and deterrence credibility. The modern-day concept of comprehensive national defence remains staple in defence planning and the perception of risks to national security as it is based on two fundamental principles – resistance and resilience. Total defence, as a concept, is intended to ensure the best possible utilization of society’s limited resources when it comes to prevention, contingency planning and consequence management across the entire spectrum of crises. The article discusses the idea of comprehensive national defence and represents a basic review of the defence approaches of some states such as Singapore, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Norwey and Georgia to identify fundamental pillars of comprehensive defence concept.