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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.

Reflecting on the individual studies of civil defence during the Cold War provided in this volume, this brief, concluding chapter performs three tasks. First, against the backdrop of the empirical analyses and the collective exploration of the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries, we reflect on the potential and limitations of this concept in historical scholarship. Second, we sum up the findings of the book by drawing attention to some of the most striking similarities and differences that emerge from the empirical chapters. Finally, we briefly make a case for the value and relevance of civil defence history for current imaginaries of security for civil society in Europe in the face of a highly diverse range of potential threats.