Lund's Academic Officers Society
Lund Academic Officers' Society (LAOS) is a student-run and defense-oriented association at Lund University, founded in 1960 by newly graduated reserve officers. The society's emblem, an owl and a sword, and the motto ready for both – “prepared for both” – symbolizes the association’s purpose of combining academic education with defense thinking. LAOS is an independent organization, unaffiliated with the Armed Forces and the university, but with a strong commitment to defense and security issues.
The activities consist of lectures, debates and study visits with prominent guests from defense, politics and academia. Over the years, the society has hosted several significant events, such as the seminar Bridging the Baltic (1997) on security in the Baltic Sea region, Defense Exhibition 98 with a focus on the future of defense and Challenge Europe (1999), attended by the UK's Chief of Staff Sir General Charles Guthrie. A larger event is organised annually; the symposium was held in 2024 Sweden as an ally, where Sweden's NATO membership was discussed by experts from various sectors.
In addition, LAOS has a strong tradition of camaraderie. Lectures and debates are often followed by sittings at the association's mass, where members sing LAOS songs and drink the association's home-spiced bäsk – a schnapps that HM the King also received during his visit in 1995. The association has a good reputation in defense circles, and a former ÖB is said to have said that an officer is not "warm in the clothes" until he has given a lecture at LAOS.
LAOS continues to be an important meeting place for those interested in defense, where serious debate is combined with student traditions. Everyone with an interest in defense issues is welcome to the LAOS community and its fair.
