A key agreement between the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) had its beginnings at the Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s annual APEX conference in 2022.

It was at this conference that Ella Carlberg, a Swedish CHDS alum and Senior Advisor of Homeland Security Affairs, requested a meeting with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell during MSB’s Director General Charlotte Petri Gornitzka’s upcoming visit to Washington DC.
Criswell (Master’s Program cohort 1003/04, ELP cohort 0801) and Gornitzka “really found each other,” said Carlberg (Executive Leaders Program cohort 2001). Criswell told Gornitzka that, “in emergency management, we are in the business of relationships.” This maxim struck a chord with the Swedish Director General.
The relationship between the two leaders developed from there and included a March 2023 visit by Criswell to Stockholm to meet with Gornitzka, Sweden’s Minister for Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin, and the Director Generals of all the Nordic countries.
Then, on May 7, 2024, Criswell and Gornitzka, along with Minister Bohlin, officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between FEMA and MSB at the House of Sweden in Washington, DC, formalizing a mutual commitment by the U.S. and Sweden to advance global resilience and share emergency management strategies.
In a FEMA release announcing the MOU signing, Criswell said, “2024 is FEMA’s Year of Resilience, an opportunity to highlight the important work we do to help communities mitigate risk, so they can respond faster and recover more effectively. The emergency management field is becoming more complex and our disaster tempo continues to increase and we know that we cannot solve these problems alone. With this partnership, Sweden and the U.S. can share best practices on how we incentivize individuals and communities to mitigate their risks.”

The release described the MOU as recognizing that the U.S. and Sweden face “growing national security threats and natural disaster risks” and “builds upon our existing cooperation and Sweden’s recent ascension to NATO, to foster greater collaboration on plans and priorities. It also helps us encourage readiness, civil protection and disaster risk reduction within our respective territories.”
Carlberg has worked at the Swedish embassy in Washington, DC, since 2018, where she is in charge of facilitating transatlantic cooperation in a wide array of areas related to societal security and resilience. She led the MOU negotiations on behalf of Sweden and subsequently signed on for another year at the embassy to help implement the new agreement.
Carlberg noted that FEMA and the MSB “have a lot in common and have worked closely for many years.” She added that the MOU will “provide a platform for deepened cooperation, and facilitate greater stability and strategic direction for the partnership.”
“Given the deteriorating security situation in Northern Europe, Sweden has joined NATO, and is on a mission to reinvigorate our classic Total Defense concept,” Carlberg said. “Total Defense is a comprehensive model for military and civil defense working in lockstep to defend our territory and create deterrence. The basis for our civil defense is a holistic approach to societal resilience, where everybody has a role, and we work together—public agencies, private businesses, civil society, and individuals—to uphold critical societal functions and support the military at times of heightened state of alert or war.”
“MSB is responsible for ensuring that civil preparedness planning is coherent on all levels of government, national, regional, and local. Our partnership with FEMA fits nicely into this framework, since we are searching for thought leaders and lessons learned as we reinvigorate our system and create new capacity,” Carlberg continued. “We are in a forward-leaning posture, and there is no time to reinvent the wheel. Instead, we are looking to our closest allies to inspire and help us in this massive task. In return, we are giving our partners a front-row seat as we develop societal resilience on a large scale. We will freely share both challenges and successes, to make sure our work contributes to strengthening transatlantic resilience.”
Carlberg said she believes that Criswell’s maxim on building relationships in the emergency management sector sums up the situation very well.
“No one can do this work alone. We need to build relationships that we can rely on when our systems are put under pressure. This goes for all levels of society and across all kinds of boundaries, but it is also valid on the individual level,” she remarked. “On a community level, MSB is driving the development of increased individual preparedness, and trying to help people think, discuss, and prepare for the worst-case scenario of war. This is no small task, especially in a country that has not been at war for over 200 years. Already in 2018, MSB sent out a brochure to all households in Sweden titled ‘If Crisis or War Comes.’ The brochure includes helpful tips on how individuals and households can become better prepared for the consequences of serious accidents, extreme weather, IT attacks, or military conflicts. After February 24, 2022, the Swedish brochure available in several languages has been in great demand online. An updated version is planned to be published in the Fall of 2024.”
Regarding the implementation of the bilateral MOU, Carlberg said work has begun on drafting a two-year work plan outlining prioritized cooperation areas.
“After the summer, we will sit down with our counterparts in FEMA’s international department and start fleshing out what our engagements will look like and plotting them on a timeline,” she said. “The priorities will include cooperation in exercise methodology, CBRNE clearance, and public-private partnerships. MSB also wants to continue supporting FEMA’s innovative International Vanguard Program.”
Carlberg expressed admiration for Criswell and her leadership at FEMA: “I find the Administrator to be an inspiring woman and leader who manages to be both firmly grounded in the first responder community and understands the boots-on-the-ground work that FEMA does. She is a clear-eyed, strategic leader who knows what she wants and how to bring her vision to bear,” she said. “I also appreciate the Administrator’s priority to develop emergency managers as a professional cadre. Leaders in emergency management need a network of trusted peers who understand the intense pressures of being in the hot seat and who can provide support in making the hard decisions.”