Framing Civil Defence Critique: Swiss Physicians' Resistance to the Coordinated Medical Services in the 1980s

Marti, Sibylle (2022). Framing Civil Defence Critique: Swiss Physicians' Resistance to the Coordinated Medical Services in the 1980s. In: Cronqvist, Marie; Farbøl, Rosanna; Sylvest, Casper (eds.) Cold War Civil Defence in Western Europe – Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Survival and Preparedness (pp. 183-207). Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan 10.1007/978-3-030-84281-9_8

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The Coordinated Medical Services, an emblematic organisation of Switzerland’s total national defence system, were operational at the beginning of the 1980s. Through the Coordinated Medical Services, Swiss authorities propagated a sociotechnical imaginary the core of which was that Switzerland was able to survive a nuclear war through a huge collective effort. This vision faced severe criticism, in particular, from members of the Physicians for Social Responsibility and the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (PSR/IPPNW Switzerland). The chapter sheds light on their resistive actions, including conscientious objection, as well as on their effective discursive strategy of subjectivisation centring around the figure of the conscientious physician. This resistance contributed to a growing civil defence criticism that challenged the Swiss total national defence imaginary.

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